ust as you pleased there, without
regard to me or Cicely."

Amherst made no answer, silenced by the discouragement of hearing the
same old grievance on her lips; and she too seemed struck, after she had
spoken, by the unprofitableness of such retorts.

"It doesn't matter--of course I'll do whatever you wish," she went on
listlessly. "But I could have sent my signature, if that is all you came
for----"

"Thanks," said Amherst coldly. "I shall remember that the next time."

They stood silent for a moment, he with his eyes fixed on her, she with
averted head, twisting her riding-whip between her fingers; then she
said suddenly: "We shall be late for dinner," and passing into her
dressing-room she closed the door.

Amherst roused himself as she disappeared.

"Bessy!" he exclaimed, moving toward her; but as he approached the door
he heard her maid's voice within, and turning away he went to his own
room.

* * * * *

Bessy came down late to dinner, with vivid cheeks and an air of
improvised ease; and the manner of her entrance, combined with her
husband's unannounced arrival, produced in their observant guests the
sense of latent complications. Mr. Langhope, though evidently unaware of
his son-in-law's return till they greeted each other in the
drawing-room, was too good a card-player to betray surprise, and Mrs.
Ansell outdid herself in the delicate art of taking everything for
granted; but these very dissimulations sharpened the perception of the
other guests, whom long practice had rendered expert in interpreting
such signs.

Of all this Justine Brent was aware; and conscious also that, by every
one but herself, the suspected estrangement between the Amhersts was
regarded as turning merely on the question of money. To the greater
number of persons present there was, in fact, no other conceivable
source of conjugal discord, since every known complication could be
adjusted by means of the universal lubricant. It was this unanimity of
view which bound together in the compactness of a new feudalism the
members of Bessy Amherst's world; which supplied them with their
pass-words and social tests, and defended them securely against the
insidious attack of ideas.

* * * * *

The Genius of History, capriciously directing the antics of its
marionettes, sometimes lets the drama languish through a series of
unrelated episodes, and then, suddenly quickening th