n
himself; and for a time he found himself listening, while the
Scotchman enlightened him, somewhat against his will, as to the
names and celebrity of the distinguished visitors whom he was
supposed to be receiving.

He was assured that the press notices could not fail to be
favourable (he mentally promised himself that nothing should
induce him to read a newspaper for at least a fortnight),
and the flattering comments of Mr. This and Lady That were
half-apologetically retailed for his presumed delectation.

As his eyes wandered, with his attention, furtively round the room,
they presently encountered, in their passage from group to group, a
face which seemed vaguely familiar--the face of a woman, whom he
certainly had never known, but whose beauty, he thought, was not
appealing to his admiration for the first time.

She was standing with her profile turned towards him, gazing gravely
at his study of a pale figure, with beautiful eyes and an armful of
wonderfully coloured poppies, which he called "Thanatos, the
Peace-bearer."

When she moved, presently, her gaze rested on him for a moment, with
the faintest note of inquiry interrupting the smile with which she
was listening to the sallies of her escort for the time being; the
smile and glance revealed her more perfectly to Oswyn, and he was
prepared to hear McAllister greet her as Mrs. Lightmark when, a few
minutes later, she passed them on her way round the room.

Eve had spent the week which followed the afternoon upon which her
husband had stunned her with the news of Philip Rainham's death
almost in solitude.

Lightmark had been obliged to pay a hasty visit to Berlin, on
business connected with an International Art Congress, and his wife
at the last moment decided, somewhat to his relief, that she would
not accompany him. A man of naturally quick perception, and with a
certain vein of nervous alertness underlying his outer clothing of
careless candour, he could not help feeling that when he was alone
with his wife he was being watched, that traps were set for him--in
short, that he was suspected. And not only when they were alone had
he cause for alarm: in crowded rooms, at mammoth dinner-parties,
and colossal assemblies he frequently became aware, by a sense even
quicker than vision, that his wife's eyes were directed upon him
from the farther side of the room, the opposite end of the
dinner-table, with that wistful, childish expression in their
depths, w