"...

"What! do you mean that Mr. Leroux doesn't like you? I can't believe
that!"

"Then the sooner... you believe it... the better."

"It can only be that he does not know you, properly?"

"He has no wish... to know me... properly; and I have no desire... to
cultivate... the... friendship of such... a silly being."

Helen Cumberly was conscious that a flush was rising from her face to
her brow, and tingling in the very roots of her hair. She was indignant
with herself and turned, aside, bending over her table in order to
conceal this ill-timed embarrassment from her visitor.

"Poor Mr. Leroux!" she said, speaking very rapidly; "I think it awfully
good of him, and sporty, to allow his wife so much liberty."

"Sporty!" said Miss Ryland, head wagging and nostrils distended in
scorn. "Idi-otic... I should call it."

"Why?"

Helen Cumberly, perfectly composed again, raised her clear eyes to her
visitor.

"You seem so... thoroughly sensible, except in regard to... Harry
Leroux;--and ALL women, with a few... exceptions, are FOOLS where the
true... character of a MAN is concerned--that I will take you right into
my confidence."

Her speech lost its quality of syncopation; the whole expression of her
face changed; and in the hazel eyes a deep concern might be read.

"My dear," she stood up, crossed to Helen's side, and rested her
artistic looking hands upon the girl's shoulder. "Harry Leroux stands
upon the brink of a great tragedy--a life's tragedy!"

Helen was trembling slightly again.

"Oh, I know!" she whispered--"I know--"

"You know?"

There was surprise in Miss Ryland's voice.

"Yes, I have seen them--watched them--and I know that the police
think"...

"Police! What are you talking about--the police?"

Helen looked up with a troubled face.

"The murder!" she began...

Miss Ryland dropped into a chair which, fortunately, stood close behind
her, with a face suddenly set in an expression of horror. She began to
understand, now, a certain restraint, a certain ominous shadow, which
she had perceived, or thought she had perceived, in the atmosphere of
this home, and in the manner of its occupants.

"My dear girl," she began, and the old nervous, jerky manner showed
itself again, momentarily,--"remember that... I left Paris by ... the
first train, this morning, and have simply been... traveling right up to
the present moment."...

"Then you have not heard? You don't know that a--murder--has been