fferent
from the life she had known; and women were variable. He would have to
understand that, learn to accommodate himself to changing, surface
moods, immovable underneath.

She had put on for supper, he saw, a daring dress; and her expression
was that which he had first noted, indifferent, slightly scoffing. Her
shoulders and arms gleamed under fragile gauze, her bodice was hardly
more than a caress of silk. He watched her every movement, and got a
sort of satisfaction from the knowledge that she grew increasingly
disturbed at his unwavering scrutiny. His mother's attitude toward Mrs.
Winscombe had not changed by a shade, an inflection; she was correctly
cordial in her slightly distant manner.

In the ebb and flow of the evening Howat was left with Ludowika for a
little, and he bent over her, kissing her sharply. She was coldly
unresponsive; and he kissed her again, trying vainly to bring some
warmth to her lips. She did not avoid him actually, but he felt that
something in her, essential, slipped aside from his caress. His emotion
changed to a mounting anger. "You will have to get over this now or
later," he asserted. She said surprisingly, "Felix will be home this
week." He stood with an arm half raised, his head turned, as he had been
arrested by her period.

"Well?" he demanded stupidly. Her tone had been beyond his
comprehension. "Felix," she went on, apparently at random, "is very
satisfactory." Something of her intent penetrated his stunned faculties.
He advanced toward her dark with rage. "And if he is," he replied, "it
will do him no good. It will do you no good, if you think--" he broke
off from an accession of emotion. "What damned thing are you thinking
of?"

"The Princess Amelia's stockings," she answered pertly.

"You'll never put them on her again, like any dirty chamber maid."

"Felix, the end of this week," she repeated.

"I'll kill him," Howat whispered; "if he lifts a hand I'll shoot him
through the head. This was forced on me; some one else, responsible, can
pay." Her chin was up, her expression mocking. "Ridiculous, like any
cloddish countryman." She walked deliberately away, seated herself in a
graceful eddy of panniered silk.

A cold torment succeeded his rage; he had the feeling of being
hopelessly trapped, stifling in his passion. He followed her. "Ludowika,
this is horrible, so soon. I am willing to think that I am to blame;
stupid; no experience. You will have to be patient with m