Her approval of the idea was generous and
eager. And she was excitedly interested in the Grosvenor Place
household. She plied him with questions. Was it an old peerage? Was
there a great country house? Had Lady Lakeden a brother? Then who was
the heir to the title?--would it pass to a collateral line? He
enlightened her on all these matters, sketching out for her the grooves
which the lives of such people generally occupied. And he threw out the
reflection that it was lucky indeed the renewal of his relations with
Grosvenor Place had not been delayed any further. He had gone back there
in the very nick of time, for the house was going to be shut up; the
earl leaving in a week or so to take a long sea voyage, whilst Lady
Lakeden meditated departure as soon as the portrait was done. Alice
remarked that they seemed to be fond of roaming about a great deal, and
Wyndham pointed out that Lady Lakeden and her father were exceptionally
placed, were to a great extent emancipated from the "swim." The earl had
practically retired from society, and his daughter, as a young widow,
naturally sought distraction in her own way, though of course she could
float brilliantly back into the world whenever the mood took her.

Since the portrait was going to the Salon, he was naturally compelled to
tell Alice about it. But the intense way in which she seemed to be
fixing her eyes on the Grosvenor Place household disconcerted him beyond
measure. This fresh interest of his had become her interest too; she had
fastened on it out of all proportion to its visible importance. At
uneasy moments he asked himself if she suspected that something lay
behind this apparently simple and innocent acquaintanceship; for her
insistent and almost morbid return to the subject on the following days
indicated its amazing hold of her.

Yet, obviously, it was impossible that she should be cherishing any
ideas of that kind. He flattered himself that his demeanour towards her,
in this trying and difficult period, was perfect; that he was as tender
in all their relations as if his heart were truly hers. Nay, he was
devoting even more of his leisure to her than ever before. And for the
very reason that the evening journeys to Hampstead had become
distasteful, he was the more careful that there should be no falling off
in his attendance there. In no wise could he have betrayed himself to
his affianced wife. No, she could not possibly have any suspicion of the
truth: he