r and--half afraid of her."

"Hm!" grunted Owen. "What did she do?"

"Do? She did a lot of things. In the first place she apologized for
having been so silly the time before--after the ball. She said she was
ill then, she didn't want to talk about it. Now she had come to make
amends--that was the idea."

"I see. Well?"

"Well, we sat before the fire and she asked me to make her a cocktail.
She said she had had the blues and she wanted to be gay. So I mixed some
cocktails and she took two, and she certainly was gay. I didn't know
Penelope drank cocktails, but of course it was all right--lots of women
do. Then she wanted to sit on the divan and she bolstered me up with
pillows. She said she liked divans. I hate to tell you all this, sir."

"Go on, Chris."

"Pretty soon she wanted a cigarette and she began to blow smoke in my
face, laughing and fooling and--finally she put her lips up so
temptingly for another light that I ... I'll never forget how she bent
over me and held my face between her two hands and kissed me slowly with
a little sideways movement and told me to call her Fauvette--not
Penelope. She said she hated the name Penelope. 'Call me Fauvette,' she
said. 'I am your Fauvette, all yours.'"

"Extraordinary! This was the woman who had been furious with you only
two nights before for daring to kiss her once?"

"Yes, sir. Now she was a siren, a wonderful, lithe creature, clinging to
me. I almost lost control of myself. Once I caught her sharply by the
shoulder--I tore her dress...."

Christopher stopped as the power of these memories overcame him. He
covered his eyes with one hand, while the other clutched the chair arm.

The doctor waited.

"Well, sir," the young man resumed, "I don't know how I came through
that night without dishonor, but I did. There was a moment of madness,
then suddenly, distinctly, like a gentle bell I heard a voice inside me,
a sort of spiritual voice saying two words that changed everything.
'_Your wife!_' That is what she was to be, my wife! I loved her. I must
defend her against herself, against myself. And I did. I got her out of
that place--somehow. I got her home--somehow. I have been through
several battles, doctor, but this one was the hardest."

Captain Herrick drew a long sigh and sat silent.

"What's the answer, doctor?" he asked presently.

"I don't know, Chris. Upon my soul, I don't know."

CHAPTER VI

EARTH-BOUND

(_From Penelope's Diary_)

_Tu