affair in the dark had been the real thing; it implied--oh,
everything. Let come what might, let be what was, that was the true
truth of the mystery. And to be loved like that was--oh, everything!

But she dismissed it from her thoughts with an effort of will, and
relations with James resumed their old position. They became formal,
they were tinged now and again with the old asperity; they were rather
dreary. Lancelot's star rose as James's sank in the heavens. His
letters became her chief preoccupation. But James's star, fallen low
though it were, still showed a faint hue of rose-colour.

Some little time after this--somewhere in early February, she met
Urquhart at a luncheon party, and was glad to see him. He shook hands
in his usual detached way, as if her gladness and their acquaintance
were matters of course. He sat next to her without ceremony, removing
another man's name-card for the purpose, and after a few short,
snapped phrases about anything or nothing, they drifted into easy
talk. Lucy's simplicity made her a delightful companion, when she was
sure of her footing. She told him that she had been saving up
Lancelot's letter to show him. "Good," he said. "I want it."

But it was not here, as it happened. So she wrote out from memory the
sentence about Urquhart: the polligamous pirate, with wives &c.
"Aren't you flattered?" she asked him, radiant with mirthful malice.
He frowned approval. He was pleased, but, like all those who make
laughter, he had none of his own. "That shot told. I got him with the
first barrel. Trust a boy to love a law-breaker. He'll never forget me
that. He's my friend for life." He added, as if to himself, "Hope so,
anyhow."

Lucy at this, had she been a cat, would have purred and kneaded the
carpet. As it was, her contentment emboldened her to flights. She was
much more bird than cat. "I wonder if you are really a law-breaker,"
she said. "I don't think I should be surprised to know it of you."

He frowned again. "No, I should say that the ground had been prepared
for that. You wouldn't be surprised--but would you be disturbed?
That's what I want to know before I tell you."

This had to be considered. What did she in her private mind think of
law-breakers? One thing was quite clear to her. Whatever she might
think of them, she was not prepared to tell him.

"I'm a lawyer's wife, you know."

"That tells me nothing," he said. "That would only give you the
position of an expert. It