opened.

With a start of confusion she sprang to her feet, and turned to confront
Norris, standing at a discreet distance, with an apologetic manner and
downcast eyes.

"Mr. Bale-Corphew, ma'am," she murmured, as Enid looked at her. "I told
him you were not at home; but he said he would wait till whenever he
could see you, it didn't matter how long."

With a little cry of dismay and annoyance, Enid put her hands to her
disordered hair.

"Oh, how stupid of you!" she cried, tremulously. "You know I can't see
him. You know I won't see him. Tell him I'm out--ill--anything you can
think of--" But her voice suddenly faltered, and her words ended in a
gasp, as she glanced from the servant to the door, which had abruptly
reopened, displaying the face and figure of Bale-Corphew himself.

Without hesitation he had entered the room; and without hesitation he
walked straight towards her.

"Forgive me!" he exclaimed. "I know this must seem unpardonable; but the
occasion is without precedent. May I speak with you alone?"

In the moment of his entry, and during his hurried greeting, Enid had
mastered her agitation. She looked at him now with an attempt at
calmness.

"Certainly, if you have anything to say."

In the excitement under which he was obviously laboring, he did not
observe the coldness of the granted permission. He waited with
ill-concealed impatience until Norris had withdrawn, then he turned to
her afresh.

"Mrs. Witcherley!" he cried, "you see before you an outraged man!"

He made the announcement fiercely and theatrically; but, to any ear, it
would have been evident that, below the instinctive desire for dramatic
effect, his voice trembled with genuine agitation--his speech was
charged with violent feeling. To Enid, watching him with surprise and
curiosity, it was patent at a glance that some circumstance, strange in
its occurrence or vital in its issue, had shaken him to the base of his
emotional nature. And as she looked at him her own coldness, her own
humiliation, suddenly forsook her.

"What is it?" she cried, involuntarily. "What is it? Something has
happened?"

For one moment his answer was delayed--held back by the torrent of words
that rushed to his lips; then, at last, as his tongue freed itself, he
threw out his hands in a fierce gesture.

"Outrage! Outrage and sacrilege!" he cried. "We have been
duped--deceived--tricked. We, the Chosen--the Elect!"

"Duped? Deceived?" She echoed the words