that it
did. Please to tell me if I am wrong."

She kept an obstinate silence, sitting motionless, her hands tightly
clasped together on her lap.

"If you don't contradict me, I must conclude that I am right. To speak
plainly, it had come to his knowledge that Mrs. Elgar--no; I will call
her Cecily, as I used to do when she was a child--that Cecily had
visited my studio the evening before. You told him of that. How did you
know of it, Mrs. Baske?"

Miriam answered in a hard, forced voice.

"I happened to be passing when she drove up in a cab."

"I understand. But you also told him how long she remained, and that
when she left I accompanied her. How could you be aware of those
things?"

She seemed about to answer, but her voice failed. She stood up, and
began to move away. Instantly Mallard was at her side.

"You must answer me," he said, his voice shaking. "If I detain you by
force, you must answer me."

Miriam turned to face him. She stood splendidly at bay, her eyes
gleaming, her cheeks bloodless, her lithe body in an attitude finer
than she knew. They looked into each other's pupils, long, intensely,
as if reading the heart there. Miriam's eyes were the first to fall.

"I waited till she came out again."

"You waited all that time? In the road?"

"Yes."

"And when you heard that Cecily had Dot returned home that night, you
believed that she had left her husband for ever?

"Yes."

Mallard drew hack a little, and his voice softened.

"Forgive me for losing sight of civility. Knowing this, it was perhaps
natural that you should inform your brother of it. You took it for
granted that Cecily--however unwise it was of her--had come to tell me
of her resolve to leave home, and that I, as her old friend, had seen
her safely to the place where she had taken refuge?"

He uttered this with a peculiar emphasis, gazing steadily into her
face. Miriam dropped her eyes, and made no reply.

"You represented it to your brother in this light?" he continued, in
the same tone.

She forced herself to look at him; there was awed wonder on her face.

"There is no need to answer in words. I see that I have understood you.
But of course you soon learnt that you had been in part mistaken.
Cecily had no intention of leaving her husband, from the first."

Miriam breathed with difficulty. He motioned to her to sit down, but
she gave no heed.

"Then why did she come to you?" fell from her lips.

"Please to take your