boyish confidence,
the really sublime simplicity rings in my ears as I write: "Wasn't she
_wonderful_!" Even at the time I was able to do it justice enough to
remark in reply that I had always told him so; but the next minute, as
if after speaking he had caught a glimpse of what he might have made
me feel, he went on quickly: "You see that if she didn't get home till
midnight--"

I instantly took him up. "There was plenty of time for you to have seen
her? How so," I inquired, "when you didn't leave my house till late?
I don't remember the very moment--I was preoccupied. But you know that
though you said you had lots to do you sat for some time after dinner.
She, on her side, was all the evening at the 'Gentlewomen.' I've just
come from there--I've ascertained. She had tea there; she remained a
long, long time."

"What was she doing all the long, long time?" I saw that he was eager to
challenge at every step my account of the matter; and the more he showed
this the more I found myself disposed to insist on that account, to
prefer, with apparent perversity, an explanation which only deepened the
marvel and the mystery, but which, of the two prodigies it had to choose
from, my reviving jealousy found easiest to accept. He stood there
pleading with a candour that now seems to me beautiful for the privilege
of having in spite of supreme defeat known the living woman; while I,
with a passion I wonder at to-day, though it still smoulders in a manner
in its ashes, could only reply that, through a strange gift shared by
her with his mother and on her own side likewise hereditary, the miracle
of his youth had been renewed for him, the miracle of hers for her. She
had been to him--yes, and by an impulse as charming as he liked; but oh!
she had not been in the body. It was a simple question of evidence. I
had had, I assured him, a definite statement of what she had done--most
of the time--at the little club. The place was almost empty, but the
servants had noticed her. She had sat motionless in a deep chair by
the drawing-room fire; she had leaned back her head, she had closed her
eyes, she had seemed softly to sleep.

"I see. But till what o'clock?"

"There," I was obliged to answer, "the servants fail me a little. The
portress in particular is unfortunately a fool, though even she too is
supposed to be a Gentlewoman. She was evidently at that period of the
evening, without a substitute and, against regulations, absent for
so