of the dead man in the days of his strength; now, as she
looked upon it in the light of subsequent knowledge, it seemed a thing
instinct with portent and dread.

Sharply and cruelly, the glamour cast by death receded from her memory.
She saw Asshlin as she had seen him in life--selfish, obstinate, and
yet weak. And, quick as the vision came, another followed. The vision
of her-self--of her own attitude towards her existence and her
responsibilities.

In silent, intent concentration she gazed upon the picture, until at
last, seized by an ungovernable impulse, half-instinctive realisation,
half-superstitious dread, she caught up the lamp and walked to the
dressing-table. There, removing the coloured shade, she laid it upon
the table; and, lifting the mirror, looked fixedly at her own
reflection, intensified by the crude, strong light.

For several minutes she stood quite motionless, her questioning eyes
searching the eyes in the glass, her pale face confronting its own
reflection. And as she looked, expressions of doubt, of fear, of
conviction chased each other across her features.

The image that confronted her was her father's image, softened by
differences of age and sex, but fundamentally the same. The image of
one who had wasted his life--ignored his duties--squandered the
substance of those who were dependent upon him! One whom even his
children had learned to despise!

With a sudden sensation of physical faintness she turned from the
table. For every folly of Denis Asshlin's, there sprang to her mind
some corresponding folly in her own more brilliant life. How
inefficiently she had worked out her own destiny--she who long ago had
been so rigid in her condemnation of him!

In sudden terror she moved unsteadily across the room, and stood
leaning against the foot of the oak bedstead; then, all at once, she
made a swift, passionate gesture, and dropped to her knees.

"O God!" she whispered wildly--"God, who made me!--I am afraid!"

CHAPTER IX

At eleven o'clock on July the fourth, Nance was to arrive at Tuffnell.
Her boat reached Liverpool on the third; but it had been arranged that
she was to spend the night on board, and take an early train to
Buckinghamshire on the following morning.

At ten o' clock Clodagh, wearing a hat and veil, and drawing on her
gloves, left her bedroom and descended the stairs. Taking advantage of
Lady Diana's arrangement that all the guests were at liberty to
breakfast