There was a curious silence for a second or two, then a clamour of
assenting voices. For a single moment Philip felt a sharp pang at his
heart. Elizabeth was gazing steadily out of the room, a queer tremble at
her lips, a look in her eyes which puzzled him, a look almost of fear, of
some sort of apprehension. The moment passed, but her enthusiasm, as
she raised her glass, was a little overdone, her gaiety too easily
assumed.

"Why, of course!" she declared. "Fancy not thinking of Sylvanus!"

They drank his health noisily. Philip set down his glass empty. A curious
instinct kept his lips sealed. He crushed down and stifled the memory of
that sudden stab. He did not even ask the one natural question.

"Say, where is Sylvanus Power these days?" Mr. Fink enquired.

"In Honolulu, when last I heard," Elizabeth replied lightly, "but then
one never knows really where he is."

Philip became naturally the central figure of the little gathering. Mr.
Fink was anxious to arrange a little dinner, to introduce him to some
fellow workers. Noel Bridges insisted upon a card for the Lambs Club and
a luncheon there. Philip accepted gratefully everything that was offered
to him. It was no good doing things by halves, he told himself. The days
of his solitude were over. Even when, after the departure of his guests,
he glanced for a moment into the anteroom beyond and remembered those few
throbbing moments of suspense, they came back to him with a curious sense
of unreality--they belonged, surety, to some other man, living in some
other world!

"You are happy?" Elizabeth murmured, as she took his arm and they waited
in the portico below for her automobile.

He had no longer any idea of telling her of that disquieting visit. The
touch of her hair blown against his cheek, as he had helped her on with
her cloak, something in her voice, some slight diffidence, a queer, half
expostulating look in the eyes that fell with a curious uneasiness before
his, drove every thought of future danger out of his mind. He had at
least the present! He answered without a moment's hesitation.

"For the first time in my life!"

She gave the chauffeur a whispered order as she stepped into the car.

"I have told him to go home by Riverside Drive," she said, as they glided
off. "It is a little farther, and I love the air at this time of night."

He clasped her fingers--suddenly felt, with the leaning of her body, her
heart beating against his. With that wa