with it?"

Presently she was dining alone with Lord Newhaven. He mentioned that it
was Dick Vernon with whom he had been walking when she arrived. Dick was
staying in Southminster for business, combined with hunting, and had
ridden over. Lord Newhaven looked furtively at Rachel as he mentioned
Dick. Her indifference was evidently genuine.

"She has not grown thin and parted with what little looks she possessed
on Dick's account," he said to himself; and the remembrance slipped
across his mind of Hugh's first word when he recovered consciousness
after drowning--"Rachel."

"I would have asked Dick to dine," continued Lord Newhaven, when the
servants had gone, "but I thought two was company and three none, and
that it was not fair on you and Violet to have him on your hands, as I
am obliged to go to London on business by the night express."

He was amazed at the instantaneous effect of his words.

Rachel's face became suddenly livid, and she sank back in her chair. He
saw that it was only by a supreme effort that she prevented herself from
fainting. The truth flashed into his mind.

"She knows," he said to himself. "That imbecile, that brainless viper to
whom I am tied, has actually confided in her. And she and Scarlett are
in love with each other, and the suspense is wearing her out."

He looked studiously away from her, and continued a desultory
conversation; but his face darkened.

The little boys came in, and pressed themselves one on each side of
their father, their eyes glued on the crystallized cherries. Rachel had
recovered herself, and she watched the children and their father with a
pain at her heart, which was worse than the faintness.

She had been unable to believe that if Lord Newhaven had drawn the short
lighter he would remain quietly here over the dreadful morrow, under the
same roof as Teddy and Pauly. Oh, surely nothing horrible could happen
so near them! Yet he seemed to have no intention of leaving Westhope.
Then, perhaps, he had not drawn the short lighter, after all. At the
moment when suspense, momentarily lulled, was once more rising hideous,
colossal, he casually mentioned that he was leaving by the night train.
The reason was obvious. The shock of relief almost stunned her.

"He will do it quietly to-morrow away from home," she said to herself,
watching him with miserable eyes, as he divided the cherries equally
between the boys. She had dreaded going up-stairs to Lady Newhaven, but
an