retly, Ellen Blackburne planned some day to write a volume of
reminiscences, and she had a "feeling," as she sat in discreet silence
beside Roger Sands in his car, that to-night she would get material for
particularly good notes. She was conscious that his nerves were tensely
strung. "It's just as if he were sitting in a thunder cloud charged full
of electricity, with me getting some of the shocks," she told herself,
thinking of her notebook, where she would make entries when she got
home.

It was nearly a quarter past eight when Roger's latch-key opened the
door of his apartment. Miss Blackburne was impressed, not only by the
magnificence of the hall, but by the originality of its decoration.

Roger, having let himself and the pearl-stringer in with his latch-key,
regretted that he had done so. He did not want to see Beverley alone
just then. It would be better to have her summoned by a servant. Miss
Blackburne was too observant of tiny details not to notice that he
stepped back and pushed the electric bell outside the door, which he had
not yet closed. And when he said to the butler: "Please tell Mrs. Sands
that I have been able to bring back Miss Blackburne," the small student
of character guessed at once that he wished to avoid meeting his wife.

The hall was large, and furnished like an extra drawing-room, therefore
it was not inhospitable that Roger should leave the pearl-stringer alone
there, with the excuse that he must dress for dinner. He was, he
explained, going to his club. As he made this announcement, however, and
before the butler could carry the message to Mrs. Sands, a dazzling
vision appeared. It could be no other, Miss Blackburne felt, than Mrs.
Sands herself; and she was right, for Beverley had dressed with unusual
speed, yet with unwonted pains, in order to be ready for Roger's return.

The vision came into the hall before the butler had been able to deliver
the message, and his wife's arrival whilst the man was present gave
Roger an opportunity he would not miss. There was a question he wished
to ask the old servant, in Beverley's hearing, but he had not expected
the chance to come so soon. The butler retreated, stepping aside
respectfully to let Mrs. Sands pass. But before the man could efface
himself, and before greeting Beverley, Roger exclaimed, "Oh, by the by,
Johnson, has any one been here since I went out?"

"Yes, sir," the butler replied, "one gentleman has been. He----"

But the visio