ve heard
aright? But there she was, standing at the gate, most evidently waiting
his permission to enter.

He left his spade sticking in the earth, and went to unfasten the gate.
Without speaking, he led the way up the little flagged path, and into the
parlour.

The Duchessa crossed to the oak settle and sat down. Slowly she began to
pull off her long crinkly doe-skin gloves. Antony watched her. He saw the
gleam of a diamond ring on her hand. It was a ring he had often noticed.
A picture of the Duchessa sitting at a little round table among orange
trees in green tubs flashed suddenly and very vividly into his mind.

"It is very hot," said the Duchessa looking up at him.

"Yes," said Antony mechanically.

"Am I interrupting your work?" asked the Duchessa.

Antony started.

"Oh, no," he replied. And he sat down by the table, leaning slightly
forward with his arms upon it.

"Do you mind my coming here?" she asked.

"I don't think so," said Antony reflectively.

A gleam of a smile flashed across the Duchessa's face. The reply was so
Antonian.

There was quite a long silence. Suddenly Antony roused himself.

"You'll let me get you some tea, Madam," he said.

Awaiting no reply, he went into the little scullery, where the fire by
which he had cooked his midday meal was still alight. The kettle filled
with water and placed on the stove, he stood by it, in a measure wishful,
yet oddly reluctant to return to the parlour. Reluctance won the day. He
remained by the kettle, gazing at it.

Left alone, the Duchessa looked round the parlour. It was exceedingly
primitive, yet, to her mind, curiously interesting. Of course in reality
it was not unlike dozens of other cottage parlours, but it held a
personality of its own for her. It was the room where Antony Gray lived.

She pictured him at his lonely meals, sitting at the table where he had
sat a moment or so agone; sitting on the settle where she was now
sitting, certainly smoking, and possibly reading. She found herself
wondering what he thought about. Did he ever think of the _Fort
Salisbury_, she wondered? Or had he blotted it from his mind, as she had
endeavoured--ineffectually--to do? And then, with that thought, with the
possibility that he had done so, her presence in the room seemed quite
suddenly an intrusion. What on earth would he think of her for coming?
And what on earth did she mean to say to him now she had come?

The impulse which had led her down th