d even more.

"Why? That isn't like you to--to turn a critical case over to another
man. I could have managed. Anyway, you'd forgotten about my maid's
wedding. So it wasn't that. What--what happened at the club?"

She shivered for a moment uncontrollably.

"John! What's the matter? Why do you glare at me like that? Why do you
look so--so--"

She tried to laugh.

"So--murderous?"

His face worked.

"Bella," he said, "I've not been altogether blind about you and
Treving."

She exclaimed impatiently, but her shiver was repeated, and the
uncertainty of her voice lingered.

"You're not going to commence on that!"

He brushed her interruption aside.

"But Treving's seemed a decent enough sort in spite of the way he spends
his money and his Broadway record, and, you see, Bella, I've always
trusted you unquestioningly."

"And now? Tell me what you're driving at, John. I won't put up--"

She sprang to her feet, facing him, wide-eyed, furious, yet, one would
have suspected, not completely free from apprehension.

Randall touched her arm.

"Don't work yourself up, Bella. You know. I've told you. It's bad for
you."

"What do you expect, when you insinuate--"

"What have I insinuated, provided your conscience's clear?"

He urged her back to the chair.

"It's just this: we must talk it out. I've a right to know how far this
folly's gone--what it portends, so that I can take measures of defence
for myself and for my wife."

She yielded and sat down, but now she bent forward, her hands clasped at
her knees to prevent their trembling.

Randall clearly made an effort to speak normally. His tone had resumed
its professional quality. It was, in a sense, soothing, but the power of
the words themselves could not be diminished, and, as he went on, her
emotions strayed farther and farther from the boundaries she had plainly
tried to impose.

"I overheard," he said. "It was Delafield and Ross. I went to Ross. I
felt I knew him well enough. My dear! It's common scandal--much worse,
I'll do you the credit of saying, than the facts. You've been seen with
Treving in cafes of doubtful reputation, and out here on Long Island, at
some of these unspeakable road houses--"

He turned away.

"People aren't kind at construing those things. He was a damned
scoundrel to take you to such places."

"I'll judge that," she said. "If it's all you have to charge me with!"

"Isn't it enough? Good God! How indiscreet!"

"Then wh