was
absorbed in his Idea. His Idea had made him absolutely impervious to
Philippa. All this Straker saw.

He made himself very attentive to Miss Tarrant that evening, and
after dinner, at her request, he walked with her on the terrace.
Over the low wall they could see Furnival in the rose garden with
Miss Milner. They saw him give her a rose, which the young girl
pinned in the bosom of her gown.

"Aren't they wonderful?" said Philippa. "Did you ever see anything
under heaven so young?"

"She is older than he is," said Straker.

"Do you remember when he wanted to give _me_ one and I wouldn't take
it?"

"I have not forgotten."

The lovers wandered on down the rose garden and Philippa looked
after them. Then she turned to Straker.

"I've had a long talk with him. I've told him that he must settle
down and that he couldn't do a better thing for himself than----"

She paused.

"Well," said Straker, "it _looks_ like it, doesn't it?"

"Yes," said Philippa. "It looks like it."

They talked of other things.

"I am going," she said presently, "to ask Miss Milner to stay with
me."

Straker didn't respond. He was thinking deeply. Her face was so
mysterious, so ominous, that yet again he wondered what she might be
up to. He confessed to himself that this time he didn't know. But he
made her promise to go on the river with him the next day. They were
to start at eleven-thirty.

At eleven Fanny came to him in the library.

"She's gone," said Fanny. "She's left a little note for you. She
said you'd forgive her, you'd understand."

"Do _you_?" said Straker.

"She said she was going to be straight and see this thing through."

"What thing?"

"Furny's thing. What else do you suppose she's thinking of? She said
she'd only got to lift her little finger and he'd come back to her;
she said there ought to be fair play. Do you see? She's gone
away--to save him."

"Good Lord!" said Straker.

But he saw.

XI

It was nearly twelve months before he heard again from Miss Tarrant.
Then one day she wrote and asked him to come and have tea with her
at her flat in Lexham Gardens.

He went. His entrance coincided with the departure of Laurence
Furnival and a lady whom Philippa introduced to him as Mrs.
Laurence, whom, she said, he would remember under another name.

Furnival's wife was younger than ever and more like Nora Viveash and
more different. When the door closed on them Philippa turned to him
with her radia