ut direct from a
man whose pomposity and mental density had excited her wit and
amusement, surprised her even if it did not hurt. It had rudely
awakened her to the fact that her independence might be leading her
into a labyrinth. She was compelled to admit that at home she would
have avoided Warrington, no matter how deeply sorry she might have
been. His insistent warning against himself, however, served to arouse
nothing more than a subtle obstinacy to do just as she pleased. And it
pleased her to talk to him; it pleased her to trifle with the unknown
danger.

Something new had been born in her. All her life she had gone about
calmly and aloofly, her head in the clouds, her feet on mountain-tops.
She had never done anything to arouse discussion in other women.
Perhaps such a situation had never confronted her until lately. She
had always looked forth upon life through the lenses of mild cynicism.
So long as she was rich she might, with impunity, be as indiscreet as
she pleased. Her money would plead forgiveness and toleration. . . .
Elsa shrugged. But shrugs do not dismiss problems. She could have
laughed. To have come all this way to solve a riddle, only to find a
second more confusing than the first!

Like a thief in the night. She did not care to know what he had done,
not half so much as to learn what he had been. Peculations of some
order; of this she was reasonably sure. So why seek for details, when
these might be sordid?

Singapore would see the end, and she would become her normal self again.

She clasped the necklace around her lovely throat. She was dressing
for dinner, really dressing. An impish mood filled her with the
irrepressible desire to shine in all her splendor to-night. Covertly
she would watch the eyes of mediocrity widen. Hitherto they had seen
her in the simple white of travel. To-night they should behold the
woman who had been notable among the beauties in Paris, Vienna, Rome,
London; who had not married a duke simply because his title could not
have added to the security of her position, socially or financially;
who was twenty-five years of age and perfectly content to wait until
she met the man who would set to flight all the doubt which kept her
heart unruly and unsettled.

Into the little mirror above the wash-stand she peered, with smiling
and approving eyes. Never had she looked better. There was unusual
color in her cheeks and the clarity of her eyes spoke illum