out worse for her than
not bringing the thing back at all."

And so he waited, ringing the bell again and again, and swallowing two
or three iced drinks which he did not want. Presently, as he hoped it
would happen, Mrs. Schomberg came in, silk dress, long neck, ringlets,
scared eyes, and silly grin--all complete. Probably that lazy beast had
sent her out to see who was the thirsty customer waking up the echoes of
the house at this quiet hour. Bow, nod--and she clambered up to her post
behind the raised counter, looking so helpless, so inane, as she sat
there, that if it hadn't been for the parcel, Davidson declared, he
would have thought he had merely dreamed all that had passed between
them. He ordered another drink, to get the Chinaman out of the room, and
then seized the parcel, which was reposing on a chair near him, and
with no more than a mutter--"this is something of yours"--he rammed it
swiftly into a recess in the counter, at her feet. There! The rest
was her affair. And just in time, too. Schomberg turned up, yawning
affectedly, almost before Davidson had regained his seat. He cast about
suspicious and irate glances. An invincible placidity of expression
helped Davidson wonderfully at the moment, and the other, of course,
could have no grounds for the slightest suspicion of any sort of
understanding between his wife and this customer.

As to Mrs. Schomberg, she sat there like a joss. Davidson was lost in
admiration. He believed, now, that the woman had been putting it on
for years. She never even winked. It was immense! The insight he had
obtained almost frightened him; he couldn't get over his wonder at
knowing more of the real Mrs. Schomberg than anybody in the Islands,
including Schomberg himself. She was a miracle of dissimulation. No
wonder Heyst got the girl away from under two men's noses, if he had her
to help with the job!

The greatest wonder, after all, was Heyst getting mixed up with
petticoats. The fellow's life had been open to us for years and nothing
could have been more detached from feminine associations. Except that he
stood drinks to people on suitable occasions, like any other man, this
observer of facts seemed to have no connection with earthly affairs and
passions. The very courtesy of his manner, the flavour of playfulness in
the voice set him apart. He was like a feather floating lightly in
the workaday atmosphere which was the breath of our nostrils. For this
reason whenever this