reabouts of the
bishop he had also located his daughter, and he marked the spot against
the restoration of full light to the room. Meanwhile he maintained his
position in the door, and would have continued to do so, had not his
host tiptoed to his side and thrust him into a near-by chair.

For some time he remained almost rigidly still, as if he would make
amends for the slight noise of his entrance by subsequent
self-effacement. The succession of pictures, even the surrender of
Breda and the scene of the jolly drinkers, shared his attention with
that part of the room in which he had seen the bishop rise, but he soon
realised that no further discoveries were possible as yet in that
direction, and began to pay more heed to the lecturer.

He knew in a vague way that he was sitting beside a woman; but
presently this consciousness increased till it became a delicate and
pervasive atmosphere. There was a seduction in the shadowy presence
that distracted his thoughts from the woman he loved, sitting somewhere
there in the obscurity before him. He experienced a well-nigh guilty
pleasure in this temporary yielding to a feminine influence other than
that to which he had consecrated himself, and finally he admitted his
deliberate appreciation. Leaning back in his chair and turning his
head to satisfy his curiosity, he saw for the first time the trick his
mind had played him. Convinced though he had been that Miss Wycliffe
was in another part of the room, he had known all the time with his
senses that she was sitting at his side. At least, it now seemed to
him that his apparent disloyalty was in reality an involuntary tribute
to her quality. She had made herself felt even when he thought she was
another. As he looked down at her rounded cheek and white shoulders,
she lifted her eyes with a recognition as suppressed as that of
acquaintances in church, and then whispered inaudibly in the ear of a
companion beyond. It was now that he saw a bunch of lilies of the
valley in the hand that rested in her lap, and knew by what channel his
imagination had been awakened.

The lecture was shorter than Leigh had anticipated, and all too short
for his desire. There was in his present position a peculiar, unspoken
intimacy of which he felt that she also must be aware. It seemed
unlikely that he could see her alone, and he cherished every moment as
perhaps the best that would be vouchsafed. Almost before he realised
what had happe