d this is
the very first chance I've had to ask you!"

Margaret's face contracted for an instant, as though from a sudden pain.
"Yes, I know," she said; "you have had to wait."

"You don't want to talk about it--is that it?" said Garda, who had
noticed this. "Because you think it was so dreadful for me to be going
there?"

Margaret did not tell what she thought on this point. "Of course you
want to know what I said," she answered. "For one thing, I said nothing
whatever about you, I made no allusion to your proposed meeting at the
pool, or----"

"That's fortunate, since Lucian knew nothing about it."

"Nothing about it? Didn't you ask him in your note--?"

"He never got the note. I've been thinking about it, and I'm convinced
of that. I'll tell you afterwards; please go on now about what you
said."

"I said as little as I could, I had no desire for a long conversation. I
told Mr. Spenser that it would be well if he could start immediately, as
I had reason to fear that Dr. Kirby, who, as he knew, had many
old-fashioned ideas, might think it necessary to come over, and take
him to task in---- in various ways. It would be better, of course, to
avoid so absurd a proceeding."

"And then did he go?"

"Yes. He said, 'Anything you think best, Mrs. Harold, of course,' and
made his preparations immediately."

"Didn't he ask any questions?"

"No; as I told you, I had no desire to talk, and I presume he saw it. I
waited until he was ready, and it was time to call Cajo and order the
wagon; then I slipped out through one of the long windows on the east
side of the house, as I didn't care to have the servants see me. I went
through the grove that skirts the water, and as I came into the main
avenue again, just at the gate, the wagon passed me, and he was in it;
he did not see me, as I had stepped back among the trees when I heard
the sound of wheels. Then I came home."

"Yes--and went to bed and had a fever!"

"It's over now."

"Didn't Lucian think it odd--your coming?" Garda went on.

"Very likely. I don't know what he thought."

"And you don't care, I suppose you mean. Well, Margaret, I know you
don't think there was any real danger; but I can assure you that there
was. You may call Dr. Kirby absurd. But absurd or not, _I_ was horribly
frightened when I saw him coming, and you cannot say that I am
frightened easily; I don't think there is any doubt as to what he would
have done if he had met Lucian!"

"I can'