th looked away. He was
miserably uncomfortable.

"You cannot be quite so hard-hearted as you try to seem, Mr.
Aynesworth," she said quietly. "I want to ask you a question. You must
answer it? You don't know how much it means to me. You are Sir Wingrave
Seton's secretary; you have access to all his papers. Have you seen any
letters of mine? Do you know if he still has any in his possession?"

"My answer to both questions is 'No!'" Aynesworth said a little stiffly.
"I only entered the service of Sir Wingrave Seton this morning, and I
know nothing at all, as yet, of his private affairs. And, Lady Ruth,
you must forgive my reminding you that, in any case, I could not discuss
such matters with you," he added.

She looked at him with a faint, strange smile. Afterwards, when he tried
to do so, Aynesworth found it impossible to describe the expression
which flitted across her face. He only knew that it left him with the
impression of having received a challenge.

"Incorruptible!" she murmured. "Sir Wingrave Seton is indeed a fortunate
man."

There was a lingering sweetness in her tone which still had a note of
mockery in it. Her silence left Aynesworth conscious of a vague sense
of uneasiness. He felt that her eyes were raised to his, and for some
reason, which he could not translate even into a definite thought, he
wished to avoid them. The silence was prolonged. For long afterwards he
remembered those few minutes. There was a sort of volcanic intensity in
the atmosphere. He was acutely conscious of small extraneous things, of
the perfume of a great bowl of hyacinths, the ticking of a tiny French
clock, the restless drumming of her finger tips upon the arm of her
chair. All the time he seemed actually to feel her eyes, commanding,
impelling, beseeching him to turn round. He did so at last, and looked
her full in the face.

"Lady Ruth," he said, "will you favor me with an answer to my message?"

"Certainly," she answered, smiling quite naturally. "I will come and see
Sir Wingrave Seton at four o'clock tomorrow afternoon. You can tell
him that I think it rather an extraordinary request, but under the
circumstances I will do as he suggests. He is staying at the Clarence, I
presume, under his own name? I shall have no difficulty in finding him?"

"He is staying there under his own name," Aynesworth answered, "and I
will see that you have no difficulty."

"So kind of you," she murmured, holding out her hand. And again the