ong remain a
mystery, and the fact that it was known might help her to keep up a
presence of indifference.

"It was in the bargain--in the bargain," rang through her brain as she
re-read Strefford's telegram. She understood that he had snatched the
time for this hasty trip solely in the hope of seeing her, and her eyes
filled. The more bitterly she thought of Nick the more this proof of
Strefford's friendship moved her.

The clock, to her relief, reminded her that it was time to dress for
dinner. She would go down presently, chat with Violet and Fulmer, and
with Violet's other guests, who would probably be odd and amusing, and
too much out of her world to embarrass her by awkward questions. She
would sit at a softly-lit table, breathe delicate scents, eat exquisite
food (trust Mrs. Match!), and be gradually drawn again under the spell
of her old associations. Anything, anything but to be alone....

She dressed with even more than her habitual care, reddened her lips
attentively, brushed the faintest bloom of pink over her drawn cheeks,
and went down--to meet Mrs. Match coming up with a tray.

"Oh, Madam, I thought you were too tired.... I was bringing it up to you
myself--just a little morsel of chicken."

Susy, glancing past her, saw, through the open door, that the lamps were
not lit in the drawing-room.

"Oh, no, I'm not tired, thank you. I thought Mrs. Melrose expected
friends at dinner!"

"Friends at dinner-to-night?" Mrs. Match heaved a despairing sigh.
Sometimes, the sigh seemed to say, her mistress put too great a strain
upon her. "Why, Mrs. Melrose and Mr. Fulmer were engaged to dine in
Paris. They left an hour ago. Mrs. Melrose told me she'd told you," the
house-keeper wailed.

Susy kept her little fixed smile. "I must have misunderstood. In that
case... well, yes, if it's no trouble, I believe I will have my tray
upstairs."

Slowly she turned, and followed the housekeeper up into the dread
solitude she had just left.

XIV

THE next day a lot of people turned up unannounced for luncheon. They
were not of the far-fetched and the exotic, in whom Mrs. Melrose now
specialized, but merely commonplace fashionable people belonging to
Susy's own group, people familiar with the amusing romance of her
penniless marriage, and to whom she had to explain (though none of them
really listened to the explanation) that Nick was not with her just
now but had gone off cruising... cruising in the AEgean with fr