he depths revealed by the lightning
flash of anger. Also she was sorry for Ruthven Smith, even while she
resented the plot which it was evident he had come to carry out.

With unsteady hands she lifted the delicate chain over her hair and gave
it to her husband.

"The ring is rather large for my finger. Here it is for you to show to
the Duke," she reminded him.

"Thank you, Anita," he said. And she knew that he thanked her for more
than what she gave him.

"I am a thousand times sorry," Ruthven Smith persisted. "More sorry than
I can ever explain, or you will ever know."

"Indeed it was nothing," the girl comforted him in her soft young voice.
But she read in his words a hidden meaning, as she had read one into
Knight's. She _did_ know that which he believed she would never know: the
meaning of his act, and the effort it had cost to screw his courage to
the sticking place.

Also, as the star sapphire with its sparkle of diamonds had flashed into
sight, she had seemed to read his mind. She guessed he must be telling
himself that his informant--the Countess, or some other--had mistaken one
blue stone for another.

"Let's go and join Constance and the Duchess," she went on, quietly.
"They're looking at some lovely things you will like to see. And you must
forget that Knight was cross. He has lived in wild places, and he has a
hot temper."

"I deserved what I got, I'm afraid," murmured Ruthven Smith.

"After all, nothing exciting seems likely to happen to-night in this
room, in spite of the Countess's prophecy," said Constance. "Perhaps it
may be to-morrow or Monday."

"I hope nothing more exciting will happen then than to-night!" Annesley
exclaimed, with a kindly glance at her companion. She pitied him, but she
pitied herself more, for by and by she and Knight would have to talk this
thing out together.

For the first time she dreaded the moment of being alone with her
husband. There was a stain of clay on the feet of her idol, and though
she had helped him to hide it from other eyes, nothing could be right
between them again until she had told him what she thought--until he had
promised to make restitution somehow of the thing he should never have
possessed.

CHAPTER XIX

THE SECRET

Knight and Annesley had a suite of rooms on the ground floor in what was
known as "the new wing" at Valley House. On the floor above were the
rooms occupied by Lord and Lady Annesley-Seton.

This wing was a dreadf