should have
some self-respect, he thought. He should not let every inquisitive
fool see when and how and where a shaft has wounded him. Why should
he not go? A heartache or two additional would not matter in Egypt.
As for Mrs. Lancaster, he could certainly keep at a safe distance from
_her_, even if she had not gone to the White Sulphur, as he hoped to
heaven she had.

This devout hope was destined to disappointment. The first person whom
he saw when he entered the well-filled drawing-room of The Willows was
the pretty widow, in radiant looks and radiant spirits, not to
mention a radiant toilette of the lightest possible and most becoming
mourning. Despite his previous resolutions, Clare found himself
gravitating to her side as soon as his respects had been paid to Mrs.
Brantley--a fact which may serve as a small proof of the weakness
of man's resolve, and his general inability to fight against fate,
especially when it is embodied in a woman's bright eyes.

"What have you been doing with yourself?" she asked after the first
salutations were over. "Have you been taking counsel with solitude on
the Egyptian question? Or have you decided like a sensible man to go
to the White Sulphur? Whatever has been the cause of your absence,
you have at least been charitable in furnishing us with a topic of
conversation. I scarcely know what we should have done without the
'Victor Clare disappearance,' as Mr. Ellis has called it, during the
last week."

"I am sure you ought to be obliged to me, then," Clare said, flushing
and laughing. "Assuredly I could not have furnished you with a topic
of conversation for a whole week if I had been present."

"Opinion has been divided concerning the mystery of your fate," she
went on. "One party has maintained that, rushing away in desperation
when you heard of Mr. Brent's arrival, you started the next day for
Suez; the other, that you were hanging about the grounds, armed to the
teeth, and only waiting an opportunity to dare your rival to deadly
combat."

"How kind one's friends are, to be sure, especially when they are
in the country, and have nothing in particular with which to amuse
themselves!"

"But what _have_ you been doing? I should like to know, if you do not
object to telling me."

"I have been very busy making my final arrangements for leaving the
country," answered he, stretching a point, it must be owned.

"You are really going, then?" she asked after a minute's silence--a