his,
he was conscious of a queer reversal of perspective.

"Who were the 'we'? Were you a cloud of witnesses?"

"There were a good many of us." She smiled. "Let me see--who was there
in your time? Mrs. Bolt--and Mademoiselle--and Professor Didymus and
the Polish Countess. Don't you remember the Polish Countess? She
crystal-gazed, and played accompaniments, and Mrs. Murrett chucked her
because Mrs. Didymus accused her of hypnotizing the Professor. But of
course you don't remember. We were all invisible to you; but we could
see. And we all used to wonder about you----"

Again Darrow felt a redness in the temples. "What about me?"

"Well--whether it was you or she who..."

He winced, but hid his disapproval. It made the time pass to listen to
her.

"And what, if one may ask, was your conclusion?"

"Well, Mrs. Bolt and Mademoiselle and the Countess naturally thought it
was SHE; but Professor Didymus and Jimmy Brance--especially Jimmy----"

"Just a moment: who on earth is Jimmy Brance?"

She exclaimed in wonder: "You WERE absorbed--not to remember Jimmy
Brance! He must have been right about you, after all." She let her
amused scrutiny dwell on him. "But how could you? She was false from
head to foot!"

"False----?" In spite of time and satiety, the male instinct of
ownership rose up and repudiated the charge.

Miss Viner caught his look and laughed. "Oh, I only meant externally!
You see, she often used to come to my room after tennis, or to touch
up in the evenings, when they were going on; and I assure you she took
apart like a puzzle. In fact I used to say to Jimmy--just to make him
wild--:'I'll bet you anything you like there's nothing wrong, because
I know she'd never dare un--'" She broke the word in two, and her quick
blush made her face like a shallow-petalled rose shading to the deeper
pink of the centre.

The situation was saved, for Darrow, by an abrupt rush of memories, and
he gave way to a mirth which she as frankly echoed. "Of course," she
gasped through her laughter, "I only said it to tease Jimmy----"

Her amusement obscurely annoyed him. "Oh, you're all alike!" he
exclaimed, moved by an unaccountable sense of disappointment.

She caught him up in a flash--she didn't miss things! "You say that
because you think I'm spiteful and envious? Yes--I was envious of Lady
Ulrica...Oh, not on account of you or Jimmy Brance! Simply because
she had almost all the things I've always wanted: clothes and fu