, but it escaped her ears like an
echo in the far distance, like a phantom that disappears in the mist.

"Will you come and see me to-morrow?" he asked suddenly.

"We had better not see each other every day," she said; "still, I don't
see there would be any harm if you came to see me in the afternoon."

Her conscience drowsed like this heavy, somnolent evening, and a red
moon rose behind the tall trees.

"The time will come," he said, "when you will hate me, Evelyn."

"I don't think I shall be as unjust as that. Good-bye, dear, the
afternoon has passed very pleasantly."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Owen had telegraphed to her and she had come at once. But how callous
and unsympathetic she was. If people knew what she was, no one would
speak to her. If Owen knew that she had desired his mother's death ...
But had she? She had only thought that, if Lady Asher were not to
recover, it were better that she died before she, Evelyn, arrived at
Riversdale. As the carriage drove through the woods she noticed that
they were empty and silent, save for the screech of one incessant bird,
and she thought of the dead woman's face, and contrasted it with the
summer time.

The house stood on the side of some rising ground in the midst of the
green park. Cattle were grazing dreamily in the grass, which grew rich
and long about a string of ponds, and she could see Owen walking under
the colonnade. As the carriage came round the gravel space, his eyes
sought her in the brougham, and she knew the wild and perplexed look on
his face.

"No, don't let's go into the house unless you're tired," he said, and
they walked down the drive under the branches, making, they knew not
why, for the open park. "This is terrible, isn't it? And this beautiful
summer's day too, not a cloud in the sky, not a wind in all the air. How
peaceful the cattle are in the meadow, and the swans in the pond. But we
are unhappy. Why is this? You say that it is the will of God. That is no
answer. But you think it is?"

Fearing to irritate him, she did not speak, but he would not be put off,
and she said--

"Do not let us argue, Owen, dear. Tell me about it. It was quite
unexpected?"

"She had been in ill-health, as you know, for some time. Let us go this
way."

He led her through the shrubbery and through the wicket into the meadows
which lay under the terrace, and, thinking of the dead woman, she
wondered at the strange, somnolent life of the cattle in th