r already."

Francis Ledsam sat where the sunlight fell upon his strong, forceful
face, shone, too, upon the table with its simple but pleasant
appointments, upon the tankard of beer by his side, upon the plate of
roast beef to which he was already doing ample justice. He laughed with
the easy confidence of a man awakened from some haunting nightmare,
relieved to find his feet once more firm upon the ground.

"I have been a fool to take the whole matter so seriously, Andrew,"
he declared. "I expect to walk back to Clarges Street to-night,
disillusioned. The man will probably present me with a gold pencil-case,
and the woman--"

"Well, what about the woman?" Wilmore asked, after a brief pause.

"Oh, I don't know!" Francis declared, a little impatiently. "The woman
is the mystery, of course. Probably my brain was a little over-excited
when I came out of Court, and what I imagined to be an epic was nothing
more than a tissue of exaggerations from a disappointed wife. I'm sure
I'm doing the right thing to go there.... What about a four-ball this
afternoon, Andrew?"

The four-ball match was played and won in normal fashion. The two men
returned to town together afterwards, Wilmore to the club and Francis to
his rooms in Clarges Street to prepare for dinner. At a few minutes to
eight he rang the bell of number 10 b, Hill Street, and found his host
and hostess awaiting him in the small drawing-room into which he was
ushered. It seemed to him that the woman, still colourless, again
marvellously gowned, greeted him coldly. His host, however, was almost
too effusive. There was no other guest, but the prompt announcement of
dinner dispelled what might have been a few moments of embarrassment
after Oliver Hilditch's almost too cordial greeting. The woman laid her
fingers upon her guest's coat-sleeve. The trio crossed the little hall
almost in silence.

Dinner was served in a small white Georgian dining-room, with every
appurtenance of almost Sybaritic luxury. The only light in the room
was thrown upon the table by two purple-shaded electric lamps, and the
servants who waited seemed to pass backwards and forwards like shadows
in some mysterious twilight--even the faces of the three diners
themselves were out of the little pool of light until they leaned
forward. The dinner was chosen with taste and restraint, the wines were
not only costly but rare. A watchful butler, attended now and then by
a trim parlour-maid, superintende