he
possibly be jealous of me?"

"She is jealous of everybody and everything," he replied bitterly, "and
she cares for nobody and for nothing. You do not know what I have to
endure sometimes from her."

Agatha thought her most discreet course was to sit down immediately and
begin "I would that my love." Whilst she played and sang, she thought
over what Sir Charles had just let slip. She had found him a pleasant
companion, light-hearted, fond of music and fun, polite and considerate,
appreciative of her talents, quick-witted without being oppressively
clever, and, as a married man, disinterested in his attentions. But it
now occurred to her that perhaps they had been a good deal together of
late.

Sir Charles had by this time wandered from his part into hers; and he
now recalled her to the music by stopping to ask whether he was right.
Knowing by experience what his difficulty was likely to be, she gave him
his note and went on. They had not been singing long when Jane came
back and sat down, expressing a hope that her presence would not disturb
them. It did disturb them. Agatha suspected that she had come there to
watch them, and Sir Charles knew it. Besides, Lady Brandon, even when
her mind was tranquil, was habitually restless. She could not speak
because of the music, and, though she held an open book in her hand, she
could not read and watch simultaneously. She gaped, and leaned to one
end of the sofa until, on the point of overbalancing' she recovered
herself with a prodigious bounce. The floor vibrated at her every
movement. At last she could keep silence no longer.

"Oh, dear!" she said, yawning audibly. "It must be five o'clock at the
very earliest."

Agatha turned round upon the piano-stool, feeling that music and Lady
Brandon were incompatible. Sir Charles, for his guest's sake, tried hard
to restrain his exasperation.

"Probably your watch will tell you," he said.

"Thank you for nothing," said Jane. "Agatha, where is Gertrude?"

"How can Miss Wylie possibly tell you where she is, Jane? I think you
have gone mad to-day."

"She is most likely playing billiards with Mr. Erskine," said Agatha,
interposing quickly to forestall a retort from Jane, with its usual
sequel of a domestic squabble.

"I think it is very strange of Gertrude to pass the whole day with
Chester in the billiard room," said Jane discontentedly.

"There is not the slightest impropriety in her doing so," said
Sir Charles. "If our h