case, merely
nodded, and went home alone. She sat beside the English hearth all
evening with an open book upside down upon her knee, and her eyes
turned towards the clock, which very slowly ticked away the last hours
she would spend beneath her husband's roof. There was spirit in her,
and though she hardly knew why, she dressed herself for the interview
carefully. When Leslie entered, his eyes expressed admiration as she
rose with cold dignity and stood before him. Leslie was sober, but
unfortunately for himself barely so, for the delegates had been treated
with lavish Western hospitality, and there had been many toasts to
honor during the dinner. He leaned against the wall with one hand on a
carved bracket, looking down upon her with what seemed to be a leer of
brutal pride upon his slightly-flushed face.

"You excelled yourself to-day, Millicent. I saw no end of folks
admiring you," he said. "Most satisfactory day! Everything went off
famously! Enjoyed yourself, eh?"

"I can hardly say I did, but that is not what you asked me to wait
for," was the cold answer, and Millicent with native caution waited to
hear what the man wanted before committing herself.

"No. I meant it, but it wasn't. I couldn't help saying I was proud of
you." Leslie paused, doubtless satisfied, his wife thought, that he
had smoothed the way sufficiently by a clumsy compliment. His
abilities were not at their best just then. Millicent's thin lips
curled scornfully as she listened.

"Thurston will be here on Thursday," he continued. "Never liked the
man, but he has behaved decently as your trustee, and I want to be fair
to him. Besides, he's a rising genius, and it's as well to be on good
terms with him. Couldn't you get him to stay to dinner and talk over
the way they've invested your legacy?"

"Do you think he would care to meet you?" asked Millicent, cuttingly.

"Perhaps he mightn't. You could have the Nelsons over, and press of
business might detain me. Anyway, you'll have no time to settle all
about that money and your English property if he goes out on the
Atlantic train. You two seem to have got quite friendly again, and I'm
tolerably sure he'd stay if you asked him."

Millicent's anger was rising all the time; but, because her suspicions
increased every moment, she kept herself in hand. Feeling certain this
was part of some plot, and that her husband was not steady enough to
carry out his _role_ cleverly, she de