ress was not at home but that Mrs. Mortimer was--which saved
Quarrier the necessity of asking for the private conference with Leila
which was exactly what he had come for. But her first unguarded words on
receiving him as he rose at her entrance into the darkened drawing-room
changed that plan, too--changed it all so utterly, and so much for
the better, that he almost smiled to think of the crudity of human
combinations and inventions as compared to the masterly machinations of
Fate. No need for him to complicate matters when here were pawns enough
to play the game for him. No need for him to do anything except give
them their initial velocity and let them tumble into one another and
totter or fall. Leila said, laughingly: "Oh, you are too late, Howard.
We are dining with Mr. Plank at Riverside Inn. What in the world are you
doing in town so suddenly?"

"A business telegram. I might have come down with you and Sylvia if I
had known. ... Is Plank dining with you alone?"

"I haven't seen him," smiled Leila evasively. "He will tell us his plans
of course when he comes."

"Oh," said Quarrier, dropping his eyes and glancing furtively toward the
curtained windows through which he could see the street and his Mercedes
waiting at the curb. At the same instant a hansom drove up; Sylvia
sprang out, ran lightly up the low steps, and the silent, shrouded house
rang with the clamour of the bell.

Leila looked curiously at Quarrier, who sat motionless, head partly
averted, as though listening to something heard by him alone. He
believed perhaps that he was listening to the voice of Fate again, and
it may have been so, for already, for the third time, all his plans were
changing to suit this new ally of his--this miraculous Fate which was
shaping matters for him as he waited. Sylvia had started up-stairs like
a fragrant whirlwind, but her flying feet halted at Leila's constrained
voice from the drawing-room, and she spun around and came into the
darkened room like an April breeze.

"Leila! They'll be here at a quarter to seven--"

Her breath seemed to leave her body as a shadowy figure rose in the
uncertain light and confronted her.

"You!"

He said: "Didn't you recognise the Mercedes outside?"

She had not even seen it, so excited, so deeply engaged had she been
with the riotous tumult of her own thoughts. And still her hurt,
unbelieving gaze widened to dismay as she stood there halted on
the threshold; and still his eyes,