e's part to have made certain of
that. But she hesitated when she came to the wondering of whether
she was considered suitable to fill that position herself. The
hesitancy was of but little duration. The first time she had seen
Traill, he had attracted her; now the attraction was increased a
thousandfold. She had often stayed at Apsley Manor. Once her father
had gone down for the shooting and had returned glowing with
enthusiasm.

"Place I should like to have," he had grunted, "place I should like
to have." And after dinner he sat over his port and amused himself
with breaking the tenth commandment.

But there was no certainty in Coralie's mind that Mrs. Durlacher,
with all her outward show of friendship, would consider her to be
the eligible one. Yet here the chance offered. She determined to take
it--hand open, ready for the gift.

From the moment then, that he arrived, she began the outset of her
campaign. The social manner she knew he hated. That she cast off.
The astute woman of the world, he despised. Mrs. Durlacher had well
grounded her. She wrapped herself in the simplicity of a girl whose
eyes have scarcely opened to a knowledge of life and whose inner
consciousness is as yet untouched.

If she had given him any impression of a want of innocence the day
before when they discussed the case in the divorce court which he
had won, she now swept it from his mind. He found her ingenuousness
charming. Her eyes helped her. They were big, grey, wide-open like
a child's. He found himself looking interestedly for the simple
questions that they turned upon him. In the box at the theatre, they
leant back in their seats and talked in undertones through the acts
and Mrs. Durlacher, leaning out to watch the piece, heard not a word
that the actors said. Her ears were strained to catch the progress
of their conversation. During the intervals, she levelled her
glasses at the house and was apparently too pre-occupied to interrupt
their enjoyment. In the interval that followed the second act, her
glasses, roaming aimlessly across the stalls, became riveted to her
eyes. After a moment, she looked hastily away, then stealthily looked
again. Finally she turned round to her brother, curbing the surprise
which, notwithstanding her efforts, forced itself into the
expression of her face.

Then she beckoned to him. He rose from his chair and came to her side.

"In the interval after the next act," she whispered, "look through
the