th me, Mr. Lessingham?"
Philippa asked.

"If I may," he answered, without changing his position.

Philippa looked at him curiously.

"Do you see ghosts through that door?"

He shook his head.

"Do you know," he said, as he seated himself by her side, "there are
times when I find your husband quite interesting."

CHAPTER XIII

Philippa leaned back in her place.

"Exactly what do you mean by that, Mr. Lessingham?" she demanded.

He shook himself free from a curious sense of unreality, and turned
towards her.

"I must confess," he said, "that sometimes your husband puzzles me."

"Not nearly so much as he puzzles me," Philippa retorted, a little
bitterly.

"Has he always been so desperately interested in deep-sea fishing?"

Philippa shrugged her shoulders.

"More or less, but never quite to this extent. The thing has become an
obsession with him lately. If you are really going to stay and talk with
me, do you mind if we don't discuss my husband? Just now the subject is
rather a painful one with me."

"I can quite understand that," Lessingham murmured sympathetically.

"What do you think of Captain Griffiths?" she asked, a little abruptly.

"I have thought nothing more about him. Should I? Is he of any real
importance?"

"He is military commandant here."

Lessingham nodded thoughtfully.

"I suppose that means that he is the man who ought to be on my track,"
he observed.

"I shouldn't be in the least surprised to hear that he was," Philippa
said drily. "I have told you that he came and asked about you the other
night, when he dined here. He seemed perfectly satisfied then, but he
is here again to-night to see Henry, and he never visits anywhere in an
ordinary way."

"Are you uneasy about me?" Lessingham enquired.

"I am not sure," she answered frankly. "Sometimes I am almost terrified
and would give anything to hear that you were on your way home. And at
other times I realise that you are really very clever, that nothing is
likely to happen to you, and that the place will seem duller than ever
when you do go."

"That is very kind of you," he said. "In any case, I fear that my
holiday will soon be coming to an end."

"Your holiday?" she repeated. "Is that what you call it?"

"It has been little else," he replied indifferently. "There is nothing
to be learnt here of the slightest military significance."

"We told you that when you arrived," Philippa reminded him.

"I was perhaps fooli