e world, you and I.
If you have anything to say against the proposal, let us discuss it
calmly."

Judith's slender figure vibrated like a cord strung to breaking-point.
Her voice vibrated.

"Yes, let us discuss it calmly. But not here. The sight of you
sitting in the middle of my life, between the sewing-machine and the
type-writer, is getting on my nerves. Let us go into the drawing-room.
There is an atmosphere of calm there--" her voice quavered in a queer
little choke--"of sabbatical calm."

I slid quickly from the table and put my arm round her waist.

"Tell me, Judith, what is amiss with you."

She broke away from me roughly, thrusting me back.

"Nothing. A woman's nothing, if you understand what that means. Come
into the drawing-room."

I opened the door; she passed out and I followed her along the passage.
She preceded me into the drawing-room, and I stayed for a moment to
close the door, fumbling with the handle which has been loose for some
months. When I turned and had made a couple of steps forward, I halted
involuntarily under the shock of a considerable surprise.

We were not alone. Standing on the hearth-rug, his hands behind his
back, his brows bent on me benevolently was a man in clerical attire. He
looked ostentatiously, exaggeratedly clerical. His clerical frock-coat
was of inordinate length; his boots were aggravatingly clump-soled; by
a very large white tie, masking the edges of a turned-down collar, he
proclaimed himself Evangelical. An otherwise clean-shaven florid face
was adorned with brown side-whiskers growing rather long. A bald, shiny
head topped a fringe of brown hair.

I stared at this unexpected gentleman for a second or two, and then,
recovering my self-possession, looked enquiringly at Judith.

"Sir Marcus," she said, "let me introduce my husband, Mr. Rupert
Mainwaring."

Her husband! This benevolent Evangelical parson her husband! But the
brilliant gallant who had dazzled her eyes? The dissolute scoundrel
that had wrecked her life? Where was he? Dumfounded, I managed to bow
politely enough, but my stupefaction was covered by Judith rushing
across the room and uttering a strange sound which resolved itself into
a shrill, hysterical laugh as she reached the door which she opened and
slammed behind her. I heard her scream hysterically in the passage;
then the slam of another door; and the silence told me that she had shut
herself in her bedroom. Disregarding the new husband's