y!--Her
heart misgave her that she had been too precipitate in this third
marriage. If she had waited?--

"Of course, with my wretchedly short sight, I may have been mistaken,"
Wace continued, pointedly ignoring her interruption, "but I am almost
convinced I recognized Colonel Carteret and Miss Verity--Damaris--through
the open door, on the other side of the _salle d'attente,_ in the crowd
on the platform about to take their places in the train from Cannes,
which had just come in."

Henrietta ceased to scan the head-lines or deplore her matrimonial
precipitation.

"Carteret and Damaris alone and together?" she exclaimed with
raised eyebrows.

"Yes, and it occurred to me that I there touched upon the explanation, in
part at least, of Sir Charles Verity's offensive manner. He had been to
see them off and was, for some reason, unwilling that we--you and I,
cousin Henrietta--should know of their journey."

Even in private life, at the very head-waters and source of her intrigues
and her scheming, Henrietta cleverly maintained an effect of secrecy. She
showed herself an adept in the fine art of outflanking incautious
intruders. Never did she wholly reveal herself or her purposes; but
reserved for her own use convenient run-holes, down which she could
escape from even the most intimate of her co-adjutors and employees. If
masterly in advance, she showed even more masterly in retreat; and that
too often at the expense of her fellow intriguers. Without scruple she
deserted them, when personal safety or personal reputation suggested the
wisdom of so doing. Though herself perplexed and suspicious, she now
rounded on Wace, taking a high tone with him.

"But why, my dear Marshall, why?" she enquired, "should Sir Charles
object to our--as you put it--_knowing_? That seems to me an entirely
gratuitous assumption on your part. In all probability Mary Ellice and
the boys were on the platform too, only you didn't happen to catch sight
of them. And, in any case, our friends at the Grand Hotel are not
accountable to us for their comings and goings. They are free agents, and
it does really strike me as just a little gossipy to keep such a very
sharp eye upon their movements.--Don't be furious with me"--

Henrietta permitted herself to reach up and pat the young man on the
shoulder, playfully, restrainingly. An extraordinarily familiar
proceeding on her part, marking the strength of her determination to
avoid any approach to a quar