t care for myself. I
will bear anything or do anything. Only one thing matters. I shall be
such a good patient.' Then her eyes grew moist, and she closed her lips
decorously to keep them from trembling.

"They're not usually like that," Mrs. Warren remarked.

"I have not found them so," he replied.

"Perhaps she believes the man will marry her."

There was odd unexpectedness in the manner in which Dr. Warren suddenly
began to laugh.

"My dear wife, if you could see her! It is the incongruity of what we
are saying which makes me laugh. With her ruby and her coronets and her
lodging-house street, she is of an impeccableness! She does not even
know she could be doubted. Fifteen years of matrimony spent in South
Kensington, three girls in the schoolroom and four boys at Eton, could
not have crystallised a more unquestionable serenity. And you are saying
gravely, 'Perhaps she believes the man will marry her.' Whatsoever the
situation is, I am absolutely sure that she has never asked herself
whether he would or not."

"Then," Mrs. Warren answered, "it is the most Extraordinary Case we have
had yet."

"But I have sworn fealty to her," was Warren's conclusion. "And she will
tell me more later." He shook his head with an air of certainty. "Yes,
she will feel it necessary to tell me later."

They went upstairs to dress for dinner, and during the remainder of the
evening which they spent alone they talked almost entirely of the
matter.

Chapter Twenty

Lady Walderhurst's departure from Palstrey, though unexpected, had been
calm and matter-of-fact. All the Osborns knew was that she had been
obliged to go up to London for a day or two, and that when there, her
physician had advised certain German baths. Her letter of explanation
and apology was very nice. She could not return to the country before
beginning her journey. It seemed probable that she would return with her
husband, who might arrive in England during the next two months.

"Has she heard that he is coming back?" Captain Osborn asked his wife.

"She has written to ask him to come."

Osborn grinned.

"He will be obliged to her. He is tremendously pleased with his
importance at this particular time, and he is just the sort of man--as
we both know--to be delighted at being called back to preside over an
affair which is usually a matter for old women."

But the letter he had examined, as it lay with the rest awaiting postal,
he had taken charge of