s a
rather saddening spectacle, and one of a type for which one can do
absolutely nothing permanent. And now, if you are quite satisfied, I
shall proceed, with your permission, to get rid of him in my own way."

It was seldom indeed that Steel descended to a display of sarcasm at his
wife's expense, though few people who came much in contact with him
escaped an occasional flick from a tongue that could be as bitter as it
was habitually smooth. His last words were therefore as remarkable as
his first; both were exceptions to a rule; and though Rachel moved away
without replying, feeling that there was indeed no more to be said, she
could not but dwell upon the matter in her mind. Satisfied she certainly
was not; and yet there was so much mystery between them, so many
instinctive reservations upon either side, that very little circumstance
of the kind could not carry an ulterior significance, but many must be
due to mere force of habit.

Rachel hated the condition of mutual secretiveness upon which she had
married this man; it was antagonistic to her whole nature; she longed to
repudiate it, and to abolish all secrets between them. But there her
pride stepped in and closed her lips; and the intolerable thought that
she would value her husband's confidence more than he would value hers,
that she felt drawn to him despite every sinister attribute, would bring
humiliation and self-loathing in its train. It was the truth, however,
or, at all events, part of the truth.

Yet a more unfair arrangement Rachel had been unable to conceive, ever
since the fatally reckless moment in which she had acquiesced in this
one. The worst that could be known about her was known to her husband
before her marriage; she had nothing else to hide; all concealment of
the past, as between themselves, was upon his side. But matters were
coming to a crisis in this respect; and, when Rachel deemed it done
with, this incident of the tramp was only just begun.

It seemed that the servants knew of it, and that it was not Steel who
had originally discovered the sleeping intruder, but an under-gardener,
who, seeing his master also up and about, had prudently inquired what
was to be done with the man before meddling with him.

"And the master said, 'leave him to me,'" declared Rachel's maid, who
was her informant on the point, as she combed out her mistress's
beautiful brown hair, before the late breakfast which did away with
luncheon when there were no