ooking thinner than you were, Sara," he added critically.

She flushed a little as she felt Trent's hawk-like glance sweep over
her.

"Oh, I've been leading too gay a life," she said hastily. "The Durwards
seem to know half London, so that we crowded about a dozen engagements
into each day--and a few more into the night."

"_Durward_?" The word sprang violently from Trent's lips, almost
as though jerked out of him, and Sara, glancing towards him in some
astonishment, surprised a strange, suddenly vigilant expression in his
face. It was immediately succeeded by a blank look of indifference, yet
beneath the assumption of indifference his eyes seemed to burn with a
kind of slumbering hostility.

"Yes--the people I have been staying with," she explained. "Do you know
them, by any chance?"

"I really can't say," he replied carelessly. "Durward is not a very
uncommon name, is it?"

"Their name was originally Lovell--they only acquired the Durward with
some property. Mrs. Durward is an extraordinarily beautiful woman. I
believe in her younger days she had half London in love with her."

Sara hardly knew why she felt impelled to supply so many particulars
concerning the Durwards. After that first brief exclamation, Trent
seemed to have lost interest, and appeared to be rather bored by the
recital than otherwise. He made no comment when she had finished.

"Then you don't know them?" she asked at last.

"I?" He started slightly, as though recalled to the present by her
question. "No. I haven't the pleasure to be numbered amongst Mrs.
Durward's friends," he said quietly. "I have seen her, however."

"She is very beautiful, don't you think?" persisted Sara.

"Very," he replied indifferently. And then, quite deliberately, he
directed the conversation into another channel, leaving Sara feeling
exactly as though a door had been slammed in her face.

It was his old method of putting an end to a discussion that failed to
please him--this arrogantly abrupt transition to another subject--and,
though it served its immediate purpose, it was a method that had its
weaknesses. If you deliberately hide behind a hedge, any one who catches
you in the act naturally wonders why you are doing it.

Even Miles looked a trifle astonished at Trent's curt dismissal of the
Durward topic, and Sara, who had observed the strange expression that
leaped into his eyes--half-guarded, half inimical--felt convinced that
he knew more about the Durwar