, had closed down all the possible sources he
could have used for her melting.

And a man cannot in a week break through a thousand years of inherited
pride.

Before the Canada scheme had presented itself he had rather thought of
joining with a friend for another trip to the Soudan: it might not be
too late still, when they had got over the Wrayth ordeal, the tenants'
dinners, and the speeches, and the cruel mockery of it all. He would
see--perhaps--what could be done, but to go on living in this daily
torture he would not submit to, for the "loving her less" had not yet
begun!

And when he had left, although she would not own it to herself, Zara's
joy in the day was gone.

The motors came to fetch them presently, and they all went back to the
Castle to dress and have tea.

Tristram's face was still stony and he had sat down in a sofa by Laura,
when a footman brought a telegram to Zara. He watched her open it, with
concentrated interest. Whom were these mysterious telegrams from? He saw
her face change as it had done in Paris, only not so seriously; and then
she crushed up the paper into a ball and threw it in the fire. The
telegram had been: "Very slightly feverish again," and signed "Mimo."

"Now I remember where I have seen your wife before," said Laura. And
Tristram said absently,

"Where?"

"In the waiting-room at Waterloo station--and yet--no, it could not have
been she, because she was quite ordinarily dressed, and she was talking
very interestedly to a foreign man." She watched Tristram's face and saw
she had hit home for some reason; so she went on, enchanted: "Of course
it could not have been she, naturally; but the type is so peculiar that
any other like it would remind one, would it not?"

"I expect so," he said. "It could not have been Zara, though, because
she was in Paris until just before the wedding."

"I remember the occasion quite well. It was the day after the engagement
was announced, because I had been up for Flora's wedding, and was going
down into the country."

Then in a flash it came to him that that was the very day he himself had
seen Zara in Whitehall, the day when she had not gone to Paris. And
rankling, uncomfortable suspicions overcame him again.

Laura felt delighted. She did not know why he should be moved at her
announcement; but he certainly was, so it was worth while rubbing it in.

"Has she a sister, perhaps? Because--now I come to think of it--the
resemblance is ex