ut into the welcoming void, and that the
promise of rest and peace had not deceived her.

But it was in the shock of falling that sanity returned; and all that
the tense little creature had been, and tried to be, and couldn't be,
and longed to be, and feared to be, and failed to be broke into a cry at
which the fishermen dropped their rods.

CHAPTER XXVI

"Thor, would you mind if I went away for a little while?"

He looked at her across the luncheon-table, but her eyes were downcast.
Though she endeavored to maintain the non-committal attitude she had
taken up at breakfast, she couldn't meet his gaze.

"If you went away!" he echoed, blankly. "Why should you do that?"

"I've been to see--" She found a difficulty in pronouncing the
name--"I've been to see Rosie. She's rather--upset."

Under the swift lifting of her lids he betrayed his self-consciousness.
"I suppose so." He kept to the most laconic form of speech in order to
leave no opening to her penetration.

"And I thought if I could take her away--"

"Where should you go?"

"Oh, anywhere. That wouldn't matter. To New York, perhaps. That might
interest her. But anywhere, so long as--"

He got out his consent while making an excuse for rising from the table.
The conversation was too difficult to sustain. It was without looking at
him that she said, as he was leaving the room:

"Then I'll go and ask her at once. I dare say she won't come--but I can
try. It will give me an excuse for going back. I feel worried at having
left her at all."

* * * * *

Between three and four that afternoon she entered her husband's office
hurriedly. It was Mrs. Dearlove who received her. "Do you know where Dr.
Masterman is? Do you know where he expected to call this afternoon?"

Brightstone consulted a card hanging on the wall. "He was to 'ave seen
Mrs. Gibbs, 'm--Number 10 Susan Street--some time through the day."

Lois made no secret of her agitation. "Have they a telephone?"

"Oh, no, 'm; 'ardly. Only a poor charwoman."

"Was he going anywhere at all where they _could_ have a telephone?"

Mrs. Dearlove having mentioned the possibilities, Lois rang up house
after house. She left the same message everywhere: Thor was to be asked
to come directly to his office, where she was awaiting him. It was after
four when he appeared.

She met him in the little entry and, taking him by the arm, drew him
into the waiting-room. "Come in, Tho