in that gloomy
mood that every step must take him further away from any chance of that
wonderful happiness, so intangible, yet so sweet an adjunct to life.
For he was following like a doomed creature in the wake of Drexley, and
Rice, and those others. Too late had come his warning. The woman of
whom he never dared to think was surely a sorceress. She was only a
woman--scarcely even beautiful, yet the world of her sex had become to
Douglas Guest as a thing that was not. He turned at last back into the
Strand. He would go to his rooms and work for a while. But as he
walked slowly down, jostled by many passers-by, still not wholly
detached from that phantasmal past, there came upon him a shock so
sudden and so overwhelming that the very pavement seemed to yawn at his
feet. Towards him two women were slowly walking, holding their own in
the press of the crowd, one with horrified eyes already fastened upon
him, the other as yet unconscious of his presence. Nearer and nearer
they came, and although every impulse of his body bade him fly, his
limbs were rigid and every muscle seemed frozen. For the women were
Joan and her sister Cicely.

CHAPTER XX

CICELY ASKS A QUESTION

After all, it was the woman who sought him who passed him by, her
unwilling companion who recognised him at once, in spite of his altered
dress and bearing. They were swallowed up in the crowd before Douglas
had recovered himself. Something in Cicely's terrified gaze had
instantly checked his first instinct which prompted him to accost them.
They were gone, leaving him alike speechless and bewildered. He
staggered into a small restaurant, and sitting at an unoccupied table,
called for a bottle of wine.

With the first draught his courage returned, his mental perspective
commenced to rearrange itself. Cicely and Joan were in London, Cicely
had seen him, Joan had not. From the first he had realised that there
was danger to him in this encounter. Cicely had seen him, but she had
made no motion of recognition, she had obviously refrained from telling
her sister of his near presence. From this he concluded that whilst she
believed in him and was still his friend, Joan was his enemy. He rolled
a cigarette with nervous fingers, and lighted it. Did Joan suspect that
he was still alive? and was she looking for him? To the world in
general Douglas Guest was dead. How was it with these two girls? There
were various small reasons why they might be inclined to d