but the fine flushed face betrayed neither
pain, nor shame, nor the affectation of one or the other. There was a
certain shyness with the candour. That was all.

"You know quite well what I mean," continued Mrs. Lascelles, with a
genuine smile at my disingenuous face. "When you met me before it was
under another name, which you have probably quite forgotten."

"No, I remember it."

"Do you remember my husband?"

"Perfectly."

"Did you ever hear--"

Her lip trembled. I dropped my eyes.

"Yes," I admitted, "or rather I saw it for myself in the papers. It's no
use pretending I didn't, nor yet that I was the least bit surprised
or--or anything else!"

That was not one of my tactful speeches. It was culpably, might indeed
have been wilfully, ambiguous; and yet it was the kind of clumsy and
impulsive utterance which has the ring of a good intention, and is thus
inoffensive except to such as seek excuses for offence. My instincts
about Mrs. Lascelles did not place her in this category at all.
Nevertheless, the ensuing pause was long enough to make me feel uneasy,
and my companion only broke it as I was in the act of framing an
apology.

"May I bore you, Captain Clephane?" she asked abruptly. I looked at her
once more. She had regained an equal mastery of face and voice, and the
admirable candour of her eyes was undimmed by the smallest trace of
tears.

"You may try," said I, smiling with the obvious gallantry.

"If I tell you something about myself from that time on, will you
believe what I say?"

"You are the last person whom I should think of disbelieving."

"Thank you, Captain Clephane."

"On the other hand, I would much rather you didn't say anything that
gave you pain, or that you might afterward regret."

There was a touch of weariness in Mrs. Lascelles's smile, a rather
pathetic touch to my mind, as she shook her head.

"I am not very sensitive to pain," she remarked. "That is the one thing
to be said for having to bear a good deal while you are fairly young. I
want you to know more about me, because I believe you are the only
person here who knows anything at all. And then--you didn't give me away
last night!"

I pointed to the grassy ledge in front of us, such a vivid green against
the house now a hundred feet below.

"I am not pushing you over there," I said. "I take about as much credit
for that."

"Ah," sighed Mrs. Lascelles, "but that dear boy, who turns out to be a
friend of yours, he