f
accounts, when I was summoned elsewhere for a few minutes. On top of the
pile was my receipted hotel bill. My husband came in, glanced at the
paper, and saw a charge for a guest. When I returned he asked me whom I
had been entertaining. I told him, and could not help blushing, the affair
being so flagrantly absurd."

"Is that all?"

"I declare to you, Mr. Brett, that you are now as well informed as I am
myself concerning our estrangement."

"There is, I take it, no objection on your part to the inquiry I have
undertaken--the fixing of responsibility for your brother's death, I
mean?"

Margaret was silent for a few seconds before she said, in a low and steady
voice:

"We are a strange race, we Hume-Frazers. Somehow I felt, when I first saw
you and Davie together, that you would be bound up with a crisis in my
life. I dread crises. They have ever been unfortunate for me. I cannot
explain myself further. I know I am approaching an eventful epoch. Well, I
am prepared. Go on with your work, in God's name. I cannot become more
unhappy than I am."

CHAPTER XV

AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR

A clock in the church tower chimed the half-hour.

"We dine at seven," said Mrs. Capella. "Let us return to the house. I told
the housekeeper to prepare a room for you. Would you care to remain for
the night? One of the grooms can bring from Stowmarket any articles you
may need."

Brett declined the invitation, pleading a certain amount of work to be
done before he retired to rest, and his expectation of finding letters or
telegrams at the hotel.

They walked more rapidly up the avenue, and the barrister noted the
graceful ease of Margaret's movements.

"Is it a fact" he asked, "that you suffer from heart disease?"

She laughed, and said, with a certain charming hesitation:

"You are both doctor and lawyer, Mr. Brett. My heart is quite sound. I
have been foolish enough to seek relief from my troubles in morphia. Do
not be alarmed. I am not a morphinee. I promised Nellie yesterday to stop
it, and I am quite certain to succeed."

The dinner passed uneventfully.

As Brett was unable to change his clothes, neither of the ladies, of
course, appeared in elaborate costumes.

Helen wore a simple white muslin dress, with pale blue ribbons. Margaret,
mindful of the barrister's hint concerning her attire, now appeared in
pale grey crepe de chine, trimmed with cerise panne velvet.

When she entered the drawing-room she almost