"Really, Owen, if you make it a grievance
that two people who are staying in the same house should be seen talking
together----!"

"They were not talking. That's the point----"

"Not talking? How do you know? You could hardly hear them from the
garden!"

"No; but I could see. HE was sitting at my desk, with his face in his
hands. SHE was standing in the window, looking away from him..."

He waited, as if for Sophy Viner's answer; but still she neither stirred
nor spoke.

"That was the first time," he went on; "and the second was the next
morning in the park. It was natural enough, their meeting there. Sophy
had gone out with Effie, and Effie ran back to look for me. She told
me she'd left Sophy and Darrow in the path that leads to the river, and
presently we saw them ahead of us. They didn't see us at first, because
they were standing looking at each other; and this time they were not
speaking either. We came up close before they heard us, and all that
time they never spoke, or stopped looking at each other. After that I
began to wonder; and so I watched them."

"Oh, Owen!" "Oh, I only had to wait. Yesterday, when I motored you
and the doctor back from the lodge, I saw Sophy coming out of the
spring-house. I supposed she'd taken shelter from the rain, and when you
got out of the motor I strolled back down the avenue to meet her. But
she'd disappeared--she must have taken a short cut and come into the
house by the side door. I don't know why I went on to the spring-house;
I suppose it was what you'd call spying. I went up the steps and found
the room empty; but two chairs had been moved out from the wall and were
standing near the table; and one of the Chinese screens that lie on it
had dropped to the floor."

Anna sounded a faint note of irony. "Really? Sophy'd gone there for
shelter, and she dropped a screen and moved a chair?"

"I said two chairs----"

"Two? What damning evidence--of I don't know what!"

"Simply of the fact that Darrow'd been there with her. As I looked out
of the window I saw him close by, walking away. He must have turned the
corner of the spring-house just as I got to the door."

There was another silence, during which Anna paused, not only to collect
her own words but to wait for Sophy Viner's; then, as the girl made no
sign, she turned to her.

"I've absolutely nothing to say to all this; but perhaps you'd like me
to wait and hear your answer?"

Sophy raised her head with a quic