later than the following Monday. Remembering what Mrs.
Widdowson had said of her intention to visit Burlington House, Barfoot
went there in the afternoon. If he chanced to encounter the pretty
little woman it would not be disagreeable. Perhaps her husband might be
with her, and in that case he could judge of the terms on which they
stood. A surly fellow, Widdowson; very likely to play the tyrant, he
thought. If he were not mistaken, she had wearied of him and regretted
her bondage--the old story. Thinking thus, and strolling through the
rooms with casual glances at a picture, he discovered his acquaintance,
catalogue in hand, alone for the present. Her pensive face again
answered to his smile. They drew back from the pictures and sat down.

'I dined with our friends at Chelsea on Saturday evening,' said Barfoot.

'On Saturday? You didn't tell me you were going back again.'

'I wasn't thinking of it just at the time.'

Monica hinted an amused surprise.

'You see,' he went on, 'I expected nothing, and happy for me that it
was so. Miss Nunn was in her severest mood; I think she didn't smile
once through the evening. I will confess to you I wrote her a letter
whilst I was abroad, and it offended her, I suppose.'

'I don't think you can always judge of her thoughts by her face.'

'Perhaps not. But I have studied her face so often and so closely. For
all that, she is more a mystery to me than any woman I have ever known.
That, of course, is partly the reason of her power over me. I feel that
if ever--if ever she should disclose herself to me, it would be the
strangest revelation. Every woman wears a mask, except to one man; but
Rhoda's--Miss Nunn's--is, I fancy, a far completer disguise than I ever
tried to pierce.'

Monica had a sense of something perilous in this conversation. It arose
from a secret trouble in her own heart, which she might, involuntarily,
be led to betray. She had never talked thus confidentially with any
man; not, in truth, with her husband. There was no fear whatever of her
conceiving an undue interest in Barfoot; certain reasons assured her of
that; but talk that was at all sentimental gravely threatened her
peace--what little remained to her. It would have been better to
discourage this man's confidences; yet they flattered her so
pleasantly, and afforded such a fruitful subject for speculation, that
she could not obey the prompting of prudence.

'Do you mean,' she said, 'that Miss Nunn seems