aps hang loosely about her, and did not fasten
her coat. She breathed the air greedily, and it seemed to allay the
stress at her heart. Then somehow she turned her steps towards the
river, wondering where Wyndham and Lady Lakeden were passing their
evening! She could take that for granted now, she felt. How carefully he
had built up the wall around his romance!

At the bottom of the street the river night-scene, scintillating with
points of light, burst on her vision, and seemed to draw her into its
own strange mood of mystery. It was as though a new universe of stars
had come into being, wafting some fascinating message which baffled her
reading. And as she stood in the great avenue, under the far-spreading
arch of foliage, a deeper calm seemed to fall upon her. She went to the
parapet, and looked over. The long stretch of water, all gleams and
shadows, lay gently between the two gray bridges that hung suspended
from their steel network in soft silhouette.

Alice strolled some distance down the bank, then turned and retraced her
steps. She told herself it was foolish to linger here, that she ought to
make at once for the busier streets, and take the first vehicle that
offered itself. But it was so deliciously silent, so majestic, that it
comforted her to stay here. Besides, somehow, she could not tear herself
away from the neighbourhood of the studio. She looked at her watch; to
her surprise it was nearly half-past eleven; she had been at the studio
a full hour and more! Surely he must be coming home soon. Perhaps,
indeed, he had returned already!

She found herself instinctively turning up Tite Street again, keeping as
before to the opposite side of the road. But all was as dark and still
in the house as when she had left it. Then the idea came to her that she
would wait and see. It was a mere whim perhaps; but she could not go
home till she had watched him enter. Still, she could not wait here in
one fixed spot; she had almost the sense of being observed by she knew
not whom. Besides, she must be cautious; she did not intend that he
should suspect she was actually so near to him at that hour of the
night. It gave her an anguished thrill to think he would pass close by
her, and yet never give her a thought.

She was, however, loth to move away, for she could not know from which
end of the street he would come. If she waited too long near one end, he
might slip by from the other. And this, whether he came on foot or