on his breast as for him
not to seize her in his arms; but each maintained the restraint inspired
by the justice of their respective causes. When she had closed the door
behind her, he stood for a long time, musing. That his thoughts were not
altogether tragic became manifest as his brow cleared, and the ghost of
a smile, this time without bitterness, hovered about his lips. Suddenly
he slapped his leg, like a man who has made a discovery.

"By Gad!" he whispered, half aloud, "when all is said and done, she
knows how to play the game!"

XVIII

It was, perhaps, the knowledge that Dorothea could play the game that
enabled Derek, during the rest of the summer, to play it himself. This
he did without flinching, finding strength in the fact that, as time
went on, Dorothea seemed to enter into his plans and submit to his
judgment. The first few weeks of pallor and silence having passed, she
resumed her accustomed ways, and, as far as he could tell, grew
cheerful. Always having credited her with common-sense, he was pleased
now to see her make use of it in a way of which few girls of nineteen
would have been capable. She accepted his surveillance with so much
docility that, by the time they returned to town in the autumn he was
able to congratulate himself on his success.

On her part, Dorothea carried out his instructions to the letter.
Notwithstanding the opening of the season and the renewal of the usual
gayeties, she lived quietly, accepting few invitations, and rarely going
into society at all, except under her father's wing. On those accidental
occasions when Carli Wappinger came within their range of vision, it was
only as a distant ship drifts into sight at sea--to drift silently away
again. If Dorothea perceived him, she gave no sign. It was clear to
Derek that her spurt of rebellion was over, and that her little
experience had done her no harm. The name of Wappinger being tacitly
ignored between them, he could only express his pleasure, in the results
he had achieved, by an extravagant increase of Dorothea's allowance, and
gifts of inappropriate jewels. It would have taken a more weatherwise
person than he to guess that behind this domestic calm the storm was
brewing.

The first intuition of threatening events came to Mrs. Wappinger.

"I've seen nothing and heard nothing," she declared, in her emphatic
way, to Diane, "but I know something is going on."

That was in September. They sat in the shade of