ore thoroughly. Thus far we've only played about the
edges."

Her eyes strayed toward the dressing-table as she passed it, and as she
reached the door she glanced over the chiffonier. It was on the tip of
Flora's tongue to ask if she had mislaid something, when Clara turned
and smiled her small, tight-curled smile, as if she were offering it as
a symbol of mutual understanding. Curiously enough, it checked Flora's
query about the straying glances, and made her wonder that this was the
first time in their relation that she had thought Clara sweet.

But there was another quality in Clara she did not lose sight of, and
she waited for the closing of a door further down the hall before she
drew the sapphire from under her pillow.

With the knocking at the door her first act had been to thrust it there.
The feeling that it was going to be hard to hide was still her strongest
instinct about it; but the morning had dissipated the element of the
supernatural and the horrid that it had shown her the night before. It
seemed to have a clearer and a simpler beauty; and the hope revived in
her that its beauty, after all, was the only remarkable thing about it.

Her conviction of the night before had sunk to a shadowy hypothesis. She
knew nothing--nothing that would justify her in taking any step; and her
only chance of knowing more lay in what she would get out of Kerr; for
that he knew more about her ring than she, she was convinced. She was
afraid of him, yet, in spite of her fear, she had no intention of
handing him over to Clara. For on reflection she knew that Clara's offer
must have a deeper motive than mere kindness, and she had a most
unreasonable feeling that it would not be safe. She felt a little guilty
to have seemed to take her companion's help, while she left her so much
at sea as to the real facts. But, after all, it was Clara who had forced
the issue.

She thought a good deal about Clara while she was dressing. A good many
times lately she had looked forward to the fall, the time of her
marriage, when their rather tense relationship would be ended. This
house in the country, which was to be her last little bachelor fling,
was to be Clara's last commission for her.

Think how she would, she could but feel as if she were ungratefully
abandoning Clara. Clara had done so well by her in their three years
together! There surely must be immediately forthcoming for such a
remarkable person another large opportunity, and