e things, and yet she had
become his wife!

At last came the message for which he was waiting. As usual, her maid
met him at the door of her suite and ushered him in. Elizabeth was
dressed for the part very simply, with a suggestion even of mourning in
her gray gown. She welcomed him with a pathetic smile.

"Once more, my dear friend," she said, "I have to thank you."

Her fingers closed upon his and she smiled into his face. Tavernake
found himself curiously unresponsive. It was the same smile, and he knew
very well that he himself had not changed, yet it seemed as though life
itself were in a state of suspense for him.

"You, too, are looking grave this morning, my friend," she continued.
"Oh, how horrible it has all been! Within the last two hours I have had
at least five reporters, a gentleman from Scotland Yard, another from
the American Ambassador to see me. It is too terrible, of course," she
went on. "Wenham's people are doing all they can to make it worse. They
want to know why we were not together, why he was living in the country
and I in town. They are trying to show that he was under restraint
there, as if such a thing were possible! Mathers was his own
servant--poor Mathers!"

She sighed and wiped her eyes. Still Tavernake said nothing. She looked
at him, a little surprised.

"You are not very sympathetic," she observed. "Please come and sit down
by my side and I will show you something."

He moved towards her but he did not sit down. She stretched out her
hand and picked something up from the table, holding it towards him.
Tavernake took it mechanically and held it in his fingers. It was a
cheque for twelve thousand pounds.

"You see," she said, "I have not forgotten. This is the day, isn't it?
If you like, you can stay and have lunch with me up here and we will
drink to the success of our speculation."

Tavernake held the cheque in his fingers; he made no motion to put it in
his pocket. She looked at him with a puzzled frown upon her face.

"Do talk or say something, please!" she exclaimed. "You look at me like
some grim figure. Say something. Sit down and be natural."

"May I ask you some questions?"

"Of course you may," she replied. "You may do anything sooner than stand
there looking so grim and unbending. What is it you want to know?"

"Did you understand that Wenham Gardner was this sort of man when you
married him?"

She shrugged her shoulders slightly.

"I suppose I did," she a