ittle cocksure bow that accompanied the smile.

"So you have found it out," said Steel, and his smile only ended as he
sipped his coffee; even then there was no end to it in his eyes.

"This afternoon," said Rachel, disconcerted but not undone.

"By poking your nose into places which you would not think of
approaching in my presence?"

"By the merest accident in the world!"

And Rachel described the accident, truth flashing from her eyes; in an
instant her husband's face changed, the smile went out, but it was no
frown that came in its stead.

"I beg your pardon, Rachel," said he, earnestly. "I suppose," he added,
"that a man may call his wife by her Christian name for once in a way? I
did so, however, without thinking, and because I really do most humbly
beg your pardon for an injustice which I have done you for some hours in
my own mind. I came home between three and four, and I heard you were in
my study. You were not, but that book was out; and then, of course, I
knew where you were. My hand was on the knob, but I drew it back. I
wondered if you would have the pluck to do the tackling! And I apologize
again," Steel concluded, "for I knew you quite well enough to have also
known that at least there was no question about your courage."

"Then," said Rachel, impulsively, after having made up her mind to
ignore these compliments, "then I think you might at least be candid
with me!"

"And am I not?" he cried. "Have I denied that the portrait you saw is
indeed the portrait of Alexander Minchin? And yet how easy that would
have been! It was taken long before you knew him; he must have altered
considerably after that. Or I might have known him under another name.
But no, I tell you honestly that your first husband was a very dear
friend of mine, more years ago than I care to reckon. Did you hear me?"
he added, with one of his sudden changes of tone and manner. "A very
dear friend, I said, for that he undoubtedly was; but was I going to ask
you to marry a very dear friend of the man who deteriorated so terribly,
and who treated you so ill?"

Delivered in the most natural manner imaginable, with the quiet
confidence of which this man was full, and followed by a smile of
conscious yet not unkindly triumph, this argument, like most that fell
from his lips upon her ears, was invested with a value out of all
proportion to its real worth; and Steel clinched it with one of those
homely saws which are not disdained by make