nderstand each other, I
hope?"

She was determined to have a reply--and she got it.

"Not quite yet," I said. "I have been hitherto, as becomes a gentleman,
always mindful of a woman's claims to forbearance. You will do well not
to tempt me into forgetting that _you_ are a woman, by prolonging your
visit. Now, Miss Helena Gracedieu, we understand each other." She made
me a low curtsey, and answered in her finest tone of irony: "I only
desire to wish you a pleasant journey home."

I rang for the waiter. "Show this lady out," I said.

Even this failed to have the slightest effect on her. She sauntered to
the door, as perfectly at her ease as if the room had been hers--not
mine.

I had thought of driving to the farm. Shall I confess it? My temper was
so completely upset that active movement of some kind offered the one
means of relief in which I could find refuge. The farm was not more
than five miles distant, and I had been a good walker all my life. After
making the needful inquiries, I set forth to visit Eunice on foot.

My way through the town led me past the Minister's house. I had left the
door some fifty yards behind me, when I saw two ladies approaching.
They were walking, in the friendliest manner, arm in arm. As they came
nearer, I discovered Miss Jillgall. Her companion was the middle-aged
lady who had declined to give her name, when we met accidentally at Mr.
Gracedieu's door.

Hysterically impulsive, Miss Jillgall seized both my hands, and
overwhelmed me with entreaties that I would go back with her to the
house. I listened rather absently. The middle-aged lady happened to be
nearer to me now than on either of the former occasions on which I had
seen her. There was something in the expression of her eyes which seemed
to be familiar to me. But the effort of my memory was not helped by what
I observed in the other parts of her face. The iron-gray hair, the baggy
lower eyelids, the fat cheeks, the coarse complexion, and the double
chin, were features, and very disagreeable features, too, which I had
never seen at any former time.

"Do pray come back with us," Miss Jillgall pleaded. "We were just
talking of you. I and my friend--" There she stopped, evidently on the
point of blurting out the name which she had been forbidden to utter in
my hearing.

The lady smiled; her provokingly familiar eyes rested on me with a
humorous enjoyment of the scene.

"My dear," she said to Miss Jillgall, "caution ceases