y that morning. Then he called round at the
hospital to find that Sidney Roche was out of danger, and went on to the
villa with the good news. On his way back he stayed chatting with the
bank manager until rather later than usual, and afterwards strolled on
to the Terrace, where he looked with some eagerness towards a certain
point in the bay. The _Minnehaha_ had departed. Mr. Grex and his
friends, then, had been set free. Hunterleys returned to the hotel
thoughtfully. At the entrance he came across two or three trunks being
wheeled out, which seemed to him somehow familiar. He stopped to look at
the initials. They were his wife's.

"Is Lady Hunterleys leaving to-day?" he asked the luggage-porter.

"By the evening train, sir," the man announced. "She would have caught
the _Cote d'Azur_ this morning but there was no place on the train."

Hunterleys was perplexed. Some time after luncheon he enquired for Lady
Hunterleys and found that she was not in the hotel. A reception clerk
thought that he had seen her go through on her way to the Sporting Club.
Hunterleys, after some moments of indecision, followed her. He was
puzzled at her impending departure, unable to account for it. The
Draconmeyers, he knew, proposed to stay for another month. He walked
thoughtfully along the private way and climbed the stairs into the Club.
He looked for his wife in her usual place. She was not there. He made a
little promenade of the rooms and eventually he found her amongst the
spectators around the baccarat table. He approached her at once.

"You are not playing?"

She started at the sound of his voice. She was dressed very simply in
travelling clothes, and there were lines under her eyes, as though she
were fatigued.

"No," she admitted, "I am not playing."

"I understood in the hotel," he continued, "that you were leaving
to-day."

"I am going back to England," she announced. "It does not amuse me here
any longer."

He realised at once that something had happened. A curious sense of
excitement stole into his blood.

"If you are not playing here, will you come and sit down for a few
moments?" he invited. "I should like to talk to you."

She followed him without a word. He led the way to one of the divans in
the roulette room.

"Your favourite place," he remarked, "is occupied."

She nodded.

"I have given up playing," she told him.

He looked at her in some surprise. She drew a little breath and kept her
eyes steadily a