"

Vereker said nothing. He did not want to disturb any lull in the storm
in his companion's mind. After a slight pause the latter continued:

"The way I account for it seems to me sufficient. I cannot conceive
any woman being to me what ... or, perhaps I should express it better
by saying I cannot connect the _wife-idea_ with any image except hers.
And, of course, the strong dominant idea displaces the feeble memory."

Vereker was ready with an unqualified assent at the moment. For though
Sally, as we have seen, had taken him into her confidence the day
after her mother's wedding--and, indeed, had talked over the matter
many times with him since--the actual truth was far too strange to
suggest itself offhand, as it would have been doing had the doctor
connected the fact that Sally's mother went out to India to be
married with this meeting of two lovers at a simmering railway-station,
name not known. The idea of the _impossible per se_ is probably the
one a finite intelligence most readily admits, and is always cordially
welcome in intellectual difficulties--a universal resolution of
logical discords. In the case of these two men, at that moment, neither
was capable of knowing the actual truth had he been told it, whatever
the evidence; still less of catching at slight connecting-links.
Fenwick went on speaking:

"I don't know whether you will understand it--yes! I think, perhaps,
you might--that it's a consolation to me this way Mrs. Fenwick comes
in. It seems to bring fresh air into what else would be--ugh!" He
shuddered a half-intentional shudder; then, dropping his voice, went
on, speaking quickly: "The thing makes part of some tragedy--some sad
story--something best forgotten! If I could only dare to hope I might
remember no more--might even forget it altogether."

"Perhaps if you could remember the whole the painfulness might
disappear. Does not anything in the image of the railway-station give
a clue to its whereabouts?"

"No. It hardly amounts to an image at all--more a fact than an image. But
the heat was a fact. And the dresses were all white--thin--tropical...."

"Then the Mrs. Fenwick that comes out of the train isn't dressed as she
dresses here?"

"Why, n-n-no!... No, certainly not. But that's natural, you know.
Of course, my mind supplies a dress for the heat."

"It doesn't diminish the puzzlement."

"Yes--yes--but it does, though. Because, look here! It's not the
_only_ thing. I find myself co