iews any questioning on that point as an attempt upon his treasury.
There was more of self-defence than of actual hostility in the
compressed lips, the bloodless face, the glaring eyes. Then, with a
shrug, the look, the resentment, and the passion were shaken off, and
Steel stepped briskly to the inner door, which he had shut in Rachel's
path. Opening it, he bowed her through with a ceremony conspicuous even
in their ceremonious relations.

But Rachel nursed her contrariety, even to the extent of a perverse
satisfaction at her encounter with the judge, and a fierce enjoyment of
its still possible consequences. The mood was neither logical nor
generous, and yet it was human enough in the actual circumstances of the
case. At last she had made him feel! It had taken her the better part of
a year, but here at last was something that he really felt. And it had
to do with her; it was impending disaster to herself which had brought
about this change in her husband; she knew him too well not to acquit
him of purely selfish solicitude for his own good name and comfortable
status in a society for which he had no real regard. There was never a
man less dependent upon the good opinion of other men. In absolute
independence of character, as in sheer strength of personality, Steel
stood by himself in the estimation of his wife. But he had deceived her
unnecessarily for weeks and months. He had lied to her. He had refused
her his whole confidence when she begged him for it, and when he knew
how he could trust her. There was some deep mystery underlying their
marriage, he could not deny it, yet he would not tell her what it was.

He had made her suffer needless pain; it was his turn. And yet, with all
her resentment against him, and all her grim savoring of the scandal
which he seemed to fear so much, there ran a golden thread of
unacknowledged contentment in the conviction that those fears were all
for her.

Outwardly she was callous to the last degree, reckless as on the day she
made this marriage, and as light-hearted as it was possible to appear;
but the excitement of the coming dinner-party was no small help to
Rachel in the maintenance of this attitude. It was to be a very large
dinner-party, and Rachel's first in her own house; in any case she must
have been upon her mettle. Two dozen had accepted. The Upthorpe party
was coming in force; if anybody knew anything, it would be Mrs.
Venables. What would she do or say? Mrs. Venabl