confidence in this man,
but somehow I can't bear his personality."

They fell into silence, each busy with disturbing thoughts. Even Miss
Clifford did not know to what an extent Roger was concerned over this
matter of Esther's whereabouts. The complete uncertainty, linked as it
was with the doctor's guarded implications, had strung him up to a
pitch of nerve-racking apprehension. Moreover, not until this had
happened did he fully realise what Esther meant to him, how differently
he regarded her from any other girl he had ever known. Could it
possibly be true that she was in some obscure way slightly unbalanced?
If he shut out the thought from his mind, he felt himself at once faced
with another equally unpleasant--that never-annihilated possibility
that she had gone off with Holliday somewhere. Perhaps she was with
him now, in Monte Carlo, or Nice, Paris even. Therese would not know,
of course. Arthur would be careful to keep it from her. The mere idea
of it made him writhe, while he felt his skin flush all over as though
a fire flared up inside him.

The door behind him opened quietly, and Therese came in, dressed for
dinner.

"How damp it is this evening!" she said, shivering slightly. "Chalmers
must bring up some more wood for the fire. I am glad you are in,
Roger; I have been so unhappy about you. Are you feeling better?"

"Yes, thank you, Therese, I rather think this bout isn't going to
amount to much after all. It looks like a false alarm."

"Ah, that would be too marvellous! Perhaps you have a very
strong--what do you call it?--constitution. Dido, darling, will you be
an angel and fasten this strap for me? Aline is out on an errand."

She leant over so that her sister-in-law need not rise. Her
dead-black, filmy gown had wide transparent sleeves that fell back to
show her white arms, she wore no ornaments except her row of lustrous
pearls. She looked fragile and lovely, her hair loosely waved with the
artlessness of a child's, her grey eyes with their flecks of gold wide
and clear, like the eyes of a beautiful Persian cat.

"Therese," Roger said abruptly. "Sit down, I want to suggest something
to you."

She patted the old lady's shoulder for thanks and sat down in the blue
damask _bergere_ beside the fire, looking up at him expectantly.

"Yes, certainly; what is it?"

"Therese, you mustn't misunderstand what I am going to say. It's
awfully difficult. The fact is, I've only just rea