into a mystery. He saw Lady O'Moy's face turn whiter
and whiter, saw her sapphire eyes dilating as they regarded him.

"Richard Butler!" she echoed. "What of Richard Butler? Tell me. Tell me
at once."

Hesitating before such signs of distress, Samoval looked at O'Moy, to
meet a dejected scowl.

Lady O'Moy turned to her husband. "What is it?" she demanded. "You
know something about Dick and you are keeping it from me. Dick is in
trouble?"

"He is," O'Moy admitted. "In great trouble."

"What has he done? You spoke of an affair at Evora or Tavora, which is
not to be mentioned before ladies. I demand to know." Her affection
and anxiety for her brother invested her for a moment with a certain
dignity, lent her a force that was but rarely displayed by her.

Seeing the men stricken speechless, Samoval from bewildered
astonishment, O'Moy from distress, she jumped to the conclusion, after
what had been said, that motives of modesty accounted for their silence.

"Leave us, Sylvia, please," she said. "Forgive me, dear. But you see
they will not mention these things while you are present." She made a
piteous little figure as she stood trembling there, her fingers tearing
in agitation at one of Samoval's roses.

She waited until the obedient and discreet Miss Armytage had passed from
view into the wing that contained the adjutant's private quarters, then
sinking limp and nerveless to her chair:

"Now," she bade them, "please tell me."

And O'Moy, with a sigh of regret for the lie so laboriously concocted
which would never now be uttered, delivered himself huskily of the
hideous truth.

CHAPTER IV. COUNT SAMOVAL

Miss Armytage's own notions of what might be fit and proper for her
virginal ears were by no means coincident with Lady O'Moy's. Thus,
although you have seen her pass into the private quarters of the
adjutant's establishment, and although, in fact, she did withdraw to
her own room, she found it impossible to abide there a prey to doubt and
misgivings as to what Dick Butler might have done--doubt and misgivings,
be it understood, entertained purely on Una's account and not at all on
Dick's.

By the corridor spanning the archway on the southern side of the
quadrangle, and serving as a connecting bridge between the adjutant's
private and official quarters, Miss Armytage took her way to Sir
Terence's work-room, knowing that she would find Captain Tremayne there,
and assuming that he would be alone.

"