covered her self-possession. She turned to the general,
her mouth compressed into a pout.

"Do you know," she said, from the tips of her lips, "you are as bad as
Atcheh. A cat would make more noise."

At this reproof the general laughed aloud, and, as though in sheer
excess of glee, beat his leg with the switch. Tancred could see it was,
indeed, a merry jest to him.

"My bonny Kate!" he gurgled. "I frightened her, did I not?" And again he
beat his leg and laughed. "And whom is the missive from?" he asked. "I
heard the gharry's wheels an hour ago. Will you pay me if I wager and I
win? Will you pay me? I wager it is from--h'm--let me see. I wager it is
from that coffee planter's wife you met at Singapore."

And Mrs. Lyeth, with her bravest smile, answered:

"You have lost."

"From whom is it then? There is no European mail to-day." He eyed her,
laughing still. "From whom is it?" he repeated. And as he spoke he bent
again and looked down at the letter, which still lay open in her hand.
"Tancred Ennever!" he exclaimed. "Why, what has he to write to you
about?"

"Don't ask me," she answered, airily; and then, presumably, she must
have understood the uselessness of further parry, for she added,
carelessly enough, "It is to Liance, not to me."

From the window Tancred could see the general turn to where his daughter
sat. And as he watched he saw the girl issue from the shadow, take the
letter from Mrs. Lyeth, and escape with it to the house. During the
entire scene she had not uttered a word. She had been a witness, not an
actor, and now as she crossed the lawn, the letter rumpled in her hold,
there was an alertness in her step and such expectance in her face that
you would have thought her hastening to a rendez-vous. It was evident
that she, too, had taken the fib for truth.

Tancred moved back. When he again peered out, the general and his
bride-elect had disappeared.

V.

Over the luncheon to which Tancred was presently summoned a foreboding
hovered, ambient in the air. Mrs. Lyeth was not present, confined by a
headache, Liance explained, to her room. The girl herself preserved her
every-day attitude, and Tancred did his best to engage her in speech;
but she did not second his endeavors. When he addressed her she
answered, if at all, with her eyes, and in them she put something that
resembled a monition. Save for the reference to her future step-mother,
she broke bread in silence. As for the general, C