le doubt whether her innocence was quite so
manifest as she supposed?

That doubt grew to uncomfortable proportions.

For two years she had been meeting Mr. Brumley as confidently as though
they had been invisible beings, and now she had to rack her brains for
just what might be mistaken, what might be misconstrued. There was
nothing, she told herself, nothing, it was all as open as the day, and
still her mind groped about for some forgotten circumstance, something
gone almost out of memory that would bear misinterpretation.... How
should she begin? "Isaac," she would say, "I am being followed about
London." Suppose he denied his complicity! How could he deny his
complicity?

The cab ran in through the gates of her home and stopped at the door.
Snagsby came hurrying down the steps with a face of consternation. "Sir
Isaac, my lady, has come home in a very sad state indeed."

Beyond Snagsby in the hall she came upon a lost-looking round-eyed
Florence.

"Daddy's ill again," said Florence.

"You run to the nursery," said Lady Harman.

"I thought I might help," said Florence. "I don't want to play with the
others."

"No, run away to the nursery."

"I want to see the ossygen let out," said Florence petulantly to her
mother's unsympathetic back. "I _never_ see the ossygen let out.
Mum--my!..."

Lady Harman found her husband on the couch in his bedroom. He was
propped up in a sitting position with every available cushion and
pillow. His coat and waistcoat and collar had been taken off, and his
shirt and vest torn open. The nearest doctor, Almsworth, was in
attendance, but oxygen had not arrived, and Sir Isaac with an expression
of bitter malignity upon his face was fighting desperately for breath.
If anything his malignity deepened at the sight of his wife. "Damned
climate," he gasped. "Wouldn't have come back--except for _your_
foolery."

It seemed to help him to say that. He took a deep inhalation, pressed
his lips tightly together, and nodded at her to confirm his words.

"If he's fanciful," said Almsworth. "If in any way your presence
irritates him----"

"Let her stay," said Sir Isaac. "It--pleases her...."

Almsworth's colleague entered with the long-desired oxygen cylinder.

Sec.7

And now every other interest in life was dominated, and every other
issue postponed by the immense urgencies of Sir Isaac's illness. It had
entered upon a new phase. It was manifest that he could no longer live
in Engla