to
involve still further his relation to his wife. But he had kept from
Betty how grave were his grounds for suspicion. The bearing away of
Karen to the ducal week-end wasn't really, in itself, so alarming an
incident; but, as a sequel to Madame von Marwitz's parting declaration
of the other evening, her supremely insolent, "I must see what I can
do," it became sinister and affected him like the sound of a second,
more prolonged, more reverberating clash upon the gong. To submit was to
show himself in Madame von Marwitz's eyes as contemptibly supine; to
protest was to appear in Karen's as meanly petty.

His reflections were interrupted by the ringing of the telephone and
when he went to it Karen's voice told him that she was spending the
evening with Tante, who was ill, and that she would not be back till
ten. Something chill and authoritative in the tones affected him
unpleasantly. Karen considered that she had a grievance and perhaps
suspected him of being its cause. After all, he thought, hanging up the
receiver with some abruptness, there was such a thing as being too
simple. One had, indeed, to be very patient with her. And one thing he
promised himself whatever came of it; he wasn't going to sacrifice Betty
by one jot or tittle to his duel with Madame von Marwitz.

It was past ten when Karen returned and his mood of latent hostility
melted when he saw how tired she looked and how unhappy. She, too, had
steeled herself in advance against something that she expected to find
in him and he was thankful to feel that she wouldn't find it. She was to
find him suave and acquiescent; he would consent without a murmur to
Madame von Marwitz's plan for the week-end.

"Darling, I'm so sorry that she's ill, your guardian," he said, taking
her hat and coat from her as she sank wearily on the sofa. "How is she
now?"

She looked up at him in the rosy light of the electric lamps and her
face showed no temporizing recognitions or gratitudes. "Gregory," she
said abruptly, "do you mind--does it displease you--if I go with Tante
next Saturday to stay with some friends of hers?"

"Mind? Why should I?" said Gregory, standing before her with his hands
in his pockets. "I'd rather have you here, of course. I've been feeling
a little deserted lately. But I want you to do anything that gives you
pleasure."

She studied him. "Betty thought it a wrong thing for me to do. She hurt
Tante's feelings deeply this afternoon. She spoke as if sh