arcely
be here?'

"'That,' she allowed, sadly, 'is a natural inference--correct in this
case, but not in all.' I glanced hurriedly along the line for relics of
crape--but she resumed my enlightenment. 'This was a souvenir of a grand
day's hunting and a broken ankle.'

"'And someone?' I hinted.

"'Yes; George--my husband--carried me home.'

"I turned abruptly to a party frock--the colour of a rose. There was a
green patch on the right breast--the blurr of crushed flowers.

"'No occasion to state what this means,' I snapped irritably. I was
seized with a desire to close the wardrobe on these trophies of
conquest.

"'No,' she said, with a quiver of the lips, 'we were married soon
after.'

"I threw myself into an arm-chair in the sulks, but she moved on to show
another gown--a bed or invalid gown--worn and faded.

"'An illness,' I said; 'you had no strength left for coquetry?'

"'Puerperal fever,' she explained. 'My baby died, and my brain--it
seemed to get paroxysms of depression and exaltation. Don't you think
that a supernatural power ordains our moods, shifts the evenness of
balance, makes us sometimes irresponsible?'

"There was a lambent excitement in her manner, which was usually gentle,
almost lethargic.

"'We can't be responsible for our brains in illness, particularly fever.
But you recovered?' I said, pointing to some fine azure drapery
encrusted with Japanese gold.

"'I recovered; yes, but I never wore that.'

"'It belonged to someone you loved?'

"'It was mine,' she said, 'and was worn by a woman I hated. She borrowed
it one night after coming over in the rain; she used to attend me
devotedly during my illness.'

"'Yet you hated her?' I asked, taking my cue from the curl of her lip.

"'Not then. In those days I thought men were true--George truest of
all--and women good.'

"I smiled, but she was quite serious.

"'In this way;' she explained, 'I imagined that if they sinned, it was
either for sheer love or for bare life.'

"I looked down at the gold storks on the heavy eastern silk, and said,
'And when did you change your opinion?'

"'When I hung away this gown, and determined it should never touch me.'

"'This woman showed you a new type?'

"'Yes,' she replied, very simply, 'she neither loved nor starved.'

"For a long time the poor girl remained mute, staring at the ill-fated
blue garment, and one of white cambric that hung the last on the hooks.
I rose to put my arm round her, t