everything ready
for Mrs. Rose--food, and fires, and things, when she returns. She'll be
chilled to the bone with this mist."

"Yes. I'll do it at once. I'll go and get on the 'phone, if you'll be so
good as to ring for the servants. I'll order a fire in her room, and a
little supper."

He turned away, full of hope now that there was something to be done;
and Herrick was following him, when Dowson, who had been temporarily
forgotten, asserted his presence.

"And what am I to do while you're searching for her?" His rage had died
away, and he looked the picture of dejection. "Can't I do anything?
I--you know I'd die for Toni--for Mrs. Rose. Can't you suggest something
for me to be doing?"

Owen turned on him fiercely.

"_You?_ You've done enough harm for one night. Suppose you take yourself
off--we've seen all we want of you, I assure you."

"But----"

"Don't stand arguing there," said Owen in a voice whose fury made the
young man wince. "We've had more than enough of you. Be so good as to
take yourself off before I kick you out of the house."

Leonard Dowson gave one last look at the other man's face as though to
see whether this threat was meant to be taken literally. What he read
there apparently decided him; for with a hoarse sigh he turned away in
the direction of the front door.

Without waiting to see if he were obeyed or not, Owen hastened away to
the telephone; and it was Herrick who opened the door and watched the
young man enter the car.

A second later he dismounted again, this time bearing Toni's
dressing-bag, which in her hurry she had left behind; and carrying it up
the steps he put it down, almost tenderly, inside the hall.

"Thank you. That will do." Herrick watched him as he hesitated,
uncertainly. "Don't let me detain you." He held the door widely open.
"Good-night."

Thus dismissed, the young man had no option. He went out into the
chilly, misty night, and mounted the car, which moved swiftly away down
the gloomy drive.

When Herrick had closed the door he paused a moment, wondering if he had
not better follow the late visitor's example and vanish quietly into the
night.

But he heard Owen's voice calling him as he stood hesitating, and found
that, in spite of his wife's treachery, he himself was not debarred from
giving help.

He attempted, awkwardly, to take his leave; but Owen was in no mood to
let him go. Whatever Mrs. Herrick's part in the tragedy, it was evident
that her hus