," Mr. Jervaise replied without
enthusiasm. He did not look as cheerful as I had anticipated, but he wore
the air of a man who has had at least a temporary reprieve.

"Olive and I were quite struck by it; weren't we, dear?" Mrs. Jervaise
continued, dragging in her daughter's evidence.

"Yes, it was very odd," Olive agreed tepidly.

I never knew what the coincidence was, but I judge from Mrs. Jervaise's
insistence that it was something perfectly futile.

I glanced across at Hughes, and guessed that he was not less bored than I
was myself, but when I caught his eye he looked hastily away.

I was beginning to wonder what I had done, but I valiantly tried again.

"Don't you think it possible that many cases of apparent coincidences are
probably due to telepathy?" I said genially, addressing the
dangerous-looking profile of my hostess.

She gave an impatient movement of her head that reminded me of a parrot
viciously digging out the kernel of a nut.

"I really can't say," she said, pointedly turned to Gordon Hughes, who was
on her other side, and asked him if he had played much tennis lately.

I looked round the table for help, but none of the party would meet my
eyes, avoiding my glance with a determination that could not be mistaken.
I might have suffered from some loathsome deformity. Frank, alone,
appeared unaware of my innocent appeal for an explanation. He was bending
gloomily over his plate, apparently absorbed in his own thoughts--though
how any man could be gloomy after his recent experience it was beyond me
to imagine.

My astonishment flamed into a feeling of acute annoyance. If any one had
spoken to me at that moment, I should have been unforgivably rude. But no
one had the least intention of speaking to me, and I had just sense enough
to restrain myself from demanding an apology from the company at large.
That was my natural inclination. I had been insulted; outraged. I was the
Jervaises' guest, and whatever they imagined that I had done, they owed it
to me and to themselves to treat me with a reasonable courtesy.

It was a detestable situation, and I was completely floored by it for the
moment. We were not half-way through lunch, and I felt that I could not
endure to sit there for another twenty minutes, avoided, proscribed, held
fast in a pillory, a butt for the sneers of any fool at the table. On the
other hand, if I got up and marched out of the room, I should be
acknowledging my defeat--and my gu