It acts directly on
the state of the particular organ. So I'm going three miles."

I grinned at her from the doorstep while Mrs. Meldrum's maid stood there
to admit me. "Oh I'm so glad," I said, looking at her as she paced away
with the pretty flutter she had kept and remembering the day when, while
she rejoined Lord Iffield, I had indulged in the same observation. Her
air of assurance was on this occasion not less than it had been on that;
but I recalled that she had then struck me as marching off to her doom.
Was she really now marching away from it?

CHAPTER XI

As soon as I saw Mrs. Meldrum I of course broke out. "Is there anything
in it? _Is_ her general health--?"

Mrs. Meldrum checked me with her great amused blare. "You've already
seen her and she has told you her wondrous tale? What's 'in it' is what
has been in everything she has ever done--the most comical, tragical
belief in herself. She thinks she's doing a 'cure.'"

"And what does her husband think?"

"Her husband? What husband?"

"Hasn't she then married Lord Iffield?"

"Vous-en-etes la?" cried my hostess. "Why he behaved like a regular
beast."

"How should I know? You never wrote me." Mrs. Meldrum hesitated,
covering me with what poor Flora called the particular organ. "No, I
didn't write you--I abstained on purpose. If I kept quiet I thought you
mightn't hear over there what had happened. If you should hear I was
afraid you would stir up Mr. Dawling."

"Stir him up?"

"Urge him to fly to the rescue; write out to him that there was another
chance for him."

"I wouldn't have done it," I said.

"Well," Mrs. Meldrum replied, "it was not my business to give you an
opportunity."

"In short you were afraid of it."

Again she hesitated and though it may have been only my fancy I thought
she considerably reddened. At all events she laughed out. Then "I was
afraid of it!" she very honestly answered.

"But doesn't he know? Has he given no sign?"

"Every sign in life--he came straight back to her. He did everything to
get her to listen to him, but she hasn't the smallest idea of it."

"Has he seen her as she is now?" I presently and just a trifle awkwardly
enquired.

"Indeed he has, and borne it like a hero. He told me all about it."

"How much you've all been through!" I found occasion to remark. "Then
what has become of him?"

"He's at home in Hampshire. He has got back his old place and I believe
by this