ws that Miss Viner had promised to see him again
in Paris. To be so promptly roused, his suspicions must have been but
half-asleep; and since then, no doubt, if she and Darrow had dissembled,
so had he. To her proud directness it was degrading to think that
they had been living together like enemies who spy upon each other's
movements: she felt a desperate longing for the days which had seemed so
dull and narrow, but in which she had walked with her head high and her
eyes unguarded.

She had come up to Paris hardly knowing what peril she feared, and still
less how she could avert it. If Owen meant to see Miss Viner--and what
other object could he have?--they must already be together, and it was
too late to interfere. It had indeed occurred to Anna that Paris might
not be his objective point: that his real purpose in leaving Givre
without her knowledge had been to follow Darrow to London and exact
the truth of him. But even to her alarmed imagination this seemed
improbable. She and Darrow, to the last, had kept up so complete a feint
of harmony that, whatever Owen had surmised, he could scarcely have
risked acting on his suspicions. If he still felt the need of an
explanation, it was almost certainly of Sophy Viner that he would ask
it; and it was in quest of Sophy Viner that Anna had despatched Miss
Painter.

She had found a blessed refuge from her perplexities in the stolid
Adelaide's unawareness. One could so absolutely count on Miss Painter's
guessing no more than one chose, and yet acting astutely on such hints
as one vouchsafed her! She was like a well-trained retriever whose
interest in his prey ceases when he lays it at his master's feet. Anna,
on arriving, had explained that Owen's unannounced flight had made her
fear some fresh misunderstanding between himself and Miss Viner. In
the interests of peace she had thought it best to follow him; but she
hastily added that she did not wish to see Sophy, but only, if possible,
to learn from her where Owen was. With these brief instructions Miss
Painter had started out; but she was a woman of many occupations, and
had given her visitor to understand that before returning she should
have to call on a friend who had just arrived from Boston, and afterward
despatch to another exiled compatriot a supply of cranberries and
brandied peaches from the American grocery in the Champs Elysees.

Gradually, as the moments passed, Anna began to feel the reaction which,
in moments