the name that he had not let her
see when he wrote it in the register after the wedding. If Ruthven Smith
knew about the _Monarchic_ and the change of name, he might make things
very unpleasant for Knight. And what must he himself be thinking at this
moment as he peered through his eyeglasses?

Annesley had always told herself that Ruthven Smith looked like a
schoolmaster. He looked more than ever like one to-night--a very severe
schoolmaster, planning to punish a rebellious pupil.

"But he can't have accepted our invitation, and have come to this house
to make a scene and a scandal before everybody," she tried to reassure
her troubled heart. "Still, he wouldn't look like that if he didn't
believe that I'm wearing the diamond, and if he did not mean to do
something about it."

It was a terrifying prospect for Annesley, and suddenly, with a shock of
certainty, she told herself that Ruthven Smith would not give her time,
if he could help it, to get rid of the ring and conceal it somewhere
else. "He'll think of an excuse after dinner to make me show what I have
on my chain, or perhaps he has thought of the excuse already!"

It seemed to the girl that the room had become bitterly cold. She
shivered slightly. "I must take off the ring and put something else on
the chain when we go away and leave the men," she decided.

But no! Even then it might be too late. Ruthven Smith neither smoked
nor drank. Very likely he would follow the ladies to the drawing room
without giving her the chance of cheating him. If she were to save Knight
from trouble she must do the thing she had to do at once.

That thing was to unfasten the clasp of the chain, slip off the ring with
the blue diamond, substitute another ring, fasten the chain again and
replace it inside her dress, all without letting Ruthven Smith across the
table, or her neighbours, suspect what was being done.

Her plate was whisked away at that moment, and leaning back in her chair
she seized the opportunity of looking at her hands. Brain and heart were
throbbing so fast that she could not remember, without counting, what
rings she had put on.

Knight had tried to console her for the loss she'd suffered through the
burglary a fortnight before by making her a present of half a dozen new
rings. Poor Knight! How anxious he always was to give her pleasure, no
matter at what expense! He had such good taste in choosing jewellery,
too, that one might almost fancy him as great an