we had exchanged the ordinary salutations.

"I am afraid you wouldn't expect to see me, Mrs. Lascelles."

"Well, as a matter of fact, I didn't, but I suppose," added Mrs.
Lascelles, as her rich voice fell into a pensive (but not a pathetic)
key, "I suppose it is you who are much more surprised at seeing me. I
can't help it if you are, Captain Clephane. I am not really a religious
person. I have not flown to that extreme as yet. But it has been a
comfort to me, sometimes; and so, sometimes, I go."

It was very simply said, but with a sigh at the end that left me
wondering whether she was in any new need of spiritual solace. Did she
already find herself in the dilemma in which I had imagined her, and was
it really a dilemma to her? New hopes began to chase my fears, and were
gaining upon them when a flannel suit on the sunlit steps caused a
temporary check: there was Bob waiting for us, his hands in his
pockets, a smile upon his face, yet in the slope of his shoulders and
the carriage of his head a certain indefinable but very visible
attention and intent.

"Is Mrs. Evers a religious woman?" asked my companion, her step slowing
ever so slightly as we approached.

"Not exactly; but she knows all about it," I replied.

"And doesn't believe very much? Then we shouldn't hit it off," exclaimed
Mrs. Lascelles, "for I know nothing and believe all I can! Nevertheless,
I'm not going to church again to-day."

The last words were in a sort of aside, and I afterwards heard that Bob
and Mrs. Lascelles had attended the later service together on the
previous Sunday; but I guessed almost as much on the spot, and it put
out of my head both the unjust assumption of the earlier remark,
concerning Catherine, and the contrast between them which Mrs. Lascelles
could hardly afford to emphasise.

"Let's go somewhere else instead--Zermatt--or anywhere else you like," I
suggested, eagerly; but we were close to the steps, and before she
could reply Bob had taken off his straw hat to Mrs. Lascelles, and flung
me a nod.

"How very energetic!" he cried. "I only hope it's a true indication of
form, for I've got a scheme: instead of putting in another chapel I
propose we stroll down to Zermatt for lunch and come back by the train."

Bob's proposal was made pointedly to Mrs. Lascelles, and as pointedly
excluded me, but she stood between the two of us with a charming smile
of good-humoured perplexity.

"Now what am I to say? Captain Clephane