on them; a long, thin face, faintly freckled over its creamy
pallor, with narrow arch of eyebrow, indifferent nose, childlike lips
and a small, pointed chin;--thus may one suggest the portrait of Iris
Woolstan. When Dyce Lashmar stepped into her drawing-room, she had the
air of one who has been impatiently expectant. Her eyes widened in a
smile of nervous pleasure; she sprang up, and offered her hand before
the visitor was near enough to take it.

"So kind of you to come! I was half afraid you might have gone out of
town not that it would have mattered. I did really want to see you as
soon as possible, but Monday would have done just as well."

She spoke rapidly in a high, but not shrill, voice, with a drawing-in
of the breath before and after her speech, and a nervous little pant
between the sentences, her bosom fluttering like that of a frightened
bird.

"As a matter of fact," cried Lashmar, with brusque cordiality, dropping
into a chair before his hostess was seated, "I _had_ gone out of town.
I got your letter at Alverholme, and came back again sooner than I
intended."

"Oh! Oh!" panted Mrs. Woolstan, on her highest note, "I shall never
forgive myself! Why _didn't_ you telegraph--or just do nothing at all,
and come when you were ready? Oh! When there wasn't the least hurry."

"Then why did you write as if something alarming had happened?" cried
the other, laughing, as he crossed his legs, and laid his silk hat
aside.

"Oh, did I? I'm sure I _didn't_ mean to. There's nothing alarming at
all--at least--that is to say--well, it's something troublesome and
disagreeable and very unexpected, and I'm rather afraid you won't like
it. But we've plenty of time to talk about it. I'm at home to nobody
else--It was really unkind of you to come back in a hurry! Besides,
it's against your principles. You wouldn't have done that if I had been
a man."

"A man would have said just what he meant," replied Dyce, smiling at
her with kindly superiority. "He wouldn't have put me in doubt."

"No, no! But did I really write like that? I thought it was just a
plain little business-like note--indeed I did! It will be a lesson to
me--indeed it will! And how did you find your people? All well, I hope?"

"Well in one way; in another--but I'll tell you about that presently."

Dyce had known Mrs. Woolstan for about a couple of years; it was in the
second twelvemonth of their acquaintance that he matured his method
with regard to women,