e, had
filled him with strange pleasure. He would find it harder to stay away
from her so long again. From now on she was armed with a new knowledge
of her lover.

Emmet too was seeing new light. He did like opposition in a woman, but
not that of a superior mind and a higher station. He would have
enjoyed the tingle of Lena's little hand smiting his cheek, that
helpless little hand which he could so easily control. Out of this
special indulgence which he allowed himself sprang an unexpected menace
for the future.

"Where are you taking me, Tom?" she asked presently.

"To Hillside," he answered, "for supper. I can have you home by eight
o'clock. There's no hurry about your getting back?"

"Oh, no," she assured him. "The housekeeper thinks I have gone to my
sister's."

"Then you are still at the bishop's?"

"Yes--and with very little to do. I get rather lonely sometimes."

"And Miss Wycliffe didn't take you with her as her maid? I should have
thought she would."

He longed to ask her about the scene attending the discovery of the
ring, and to find out just what his wife had said. Of course she had
not told the truth, but a new suspicion of Lena's astuteness made him
cautious. He was impressed by the fact that Felicity had left Lena
behind. Had she loved him wholly, would she not have made every effort
to keep her rival from his path? Was this her way of showing that she
refused to regard a servant in such a light? Or was it thus that she
put him upon his honour? At the thought he winced with a consciousness
of guilt. A third explanation occurred to his mind. Perhaps she left
Lena behind, like a bait in a trap, with the old housekeeper as spy.
This was a mean thought, he knew, suggested by his own duplicity, but
he resolved to act upon the supposition and to avoid all danger.

"She spoke of taking me," Lena said, "but changed her mind, and left me
to help take care of the house."

She too had questions to ask, but instinctively she shrunk from
disturbing the deep content of the present moment. The road they
travelled was not the one Leigh had taken that October afternoon when
he made his bicycle trip to Hillside, but a parallel way about half a
mile to the south. As they neared the other side of the valley, Emmet
took a cross-cut back to the northern road and passed her house,
without knowing that the place at which she glanced in passing was her
home. She had no desire to tell him, for it