e for happiness.

It was decided that they were to stay at Kingdon Hall a short time
before going up to town, and Bettina had looked forward to the
freedom of the country life with a hopefulness which reality
disappointed. Here again she thought of Horace, and the possible
injustice she had done him forced its way into her consciousness, and
so disturbed her with doubts and misgivings that she determined to
overcome her reluctance to mention Horace's name to her husband, and
ask boldly whether he had actually received the sum of money which
she had been promised that he should have. It had become so essential
to her to know about this that she determined to use her very first
opportunity of asking.

Not ten minutes after she had made this resolution she unexpectedly
encountered Lord Hurdly, in crossing a hall. He had been out on
horseback, and still wore his riding-clothes. The correct and
carefully fitted leggings showed legs that were thin and shapeless.
Beneath them were small feet, on which their owner did not step very
firmly. The somewhat showy waistcoat and short coat had an air of
displaying themselves and concealing the form beneath them, which
was perhaps a high tribute to his tailor's art. His chest looked
narrower, his face more wrinkled, his hair thinner, than Bettina had
before noticed them to be, and there was a certain loose-jointedness
in his figure which, as he moved toward her on his narrow and closely
booted feet, gave him the sort of teetering motion of the elderly
beau. His face, neutral and cold as ever, showed the signs of age
less, yet Bettina felt that it masked the inadequacy of his soul as
distinctively as his clothes masked that of his body.

As they came toward each other--this man and this woman, whose
marriage was supposed to be a union of two into one--the face of each
might, by an eye sensitive to the subtleties of human expression,
have been seen to harden slightly. Lord Hurdly took off his hat with
an automatic motion which might have prompted the thought that the
action arose from his ideal of himself rather than from any
association with the woman before him.

"Excuse me for detaining you a moment," said Bettina, "but I want to
know whether Horace Spotswood actually received the money which you
made over to him at the time of your marriage to me. I have heard
that he is leading a very active life, on lines where money will be
of great use to him. Naturally I am anxious to be su