re was Peter at the door. Instantly the light
sprang renewed into Electra's eyes. Peter would do still better than
grandmother to confirm her triumph, though at the moment even she
charged herself to be lofty in her judgments and temperate in expressing
them. Peter did not look at all like one who had himself heard unlovely
news. His face glowed. There were points of light in his dark eyes. Rose
had left them there, and Electra, with the sick certainty of the
jealous, knew it. They went silently into the library, Peter holding, as
well as he might, the lax hand hanging at her side. In the morning light
of the room they faced each other, and she asked her question, the one
that, unbidden, came leaping to her lips.

"Did you meet her?"

He knew whom she meant, for his thought, too, was full of her.

"Yes," he said, and then swept even Rose aside as deflecting him from
his purpose. "Electra, I have decided to go back to France."

Immediately she thought she saw why. Rose was going and he had to
follow.

"What did she tell you?" she cried sharply. The pang that came
astonished her, it was so savage. Even in the haste of the moment, she
had time for a passing surprise that she could be so moved by Peter. He
was looking at her with innocent perplexity.

"Rose?" he said. "Nothing. I told her I was coming here and she--" He
paused, for he was on the point of adding, "She sent me." Peter could
see how ill-judged that would be.

Electra, her proud glance on him, was considering, balancing
probabilities. With his artist's eye he saw how handsome she was, how
like, in the outer woman, to his imperial lady. Such spirit in her could
only, it seemed, be spent for noble ends.

"Has she told you?" asked Electra, and there was something, he saw,
beyond what he suspected. Her voice rang out against her will: "No, she
hasn't. She means, for some reason, not to tell you. But she has had to
tell me."

Peter was staring at her.

"Has something happened to her?" he asked quickly. "I must know."

That mysterious rage she was so unwilling to recognize got possession of
her again.

"It means a great deal to you," she breathed.

"Of course it does," said Peter honestly. "Don't keep me dangling,
Electra."

Electra's mouth seemed to harden before his eyes. She looked like some
noble and beautiful image of justice or a kindred virtue.

"She thinks I shall not tell you," she declared. "But I shall. It is no
more right for you to be