ice with a
quieter mind than had been hers on the first day she had worn it, when
there had been nothing to explain her uneasiness.

She was quite sure she was going to give back the sapphire to Harry, yet
she couldn't help picturing to herself what her meeting with Kerr would
have been, supposing she had decided differently. As the morning slipped
by she found herself doubting that he would come at all. Her attitude of
the night before had surely been enough to discourage any one. Yet if he
didn't come she knew that she would be disappointed.

She was alone at luncheon, and in a dream. She glanced now and then at
the clock. She rose only ten minutes before the hour that Harry was in
the habit of leaving the club. She went up-stairs slowly and stopped in
front of the telephone. She touched the receiver, drew her hand back and
turned away. She shut the door of her own rooms smartly after her.

She did not try to--because she couldn't--understand her own proceeding.
She merely sat, listening, as it seemed to her, for hours.

But when at last Kerr's card was handed in to her, it gave her a shock,
as if something which couldn't happen, and yet which she had all along
expected, had come to pass.

In her instant of indecision Marrika had got away from her, but she
called the girl back from the door and told her to say to Mrs. Britton
that Mr. Kerr had called, but that Miss Gilsey would see him herself.

She started with a rush. Half-way down the stairs she stopped, horrified
to find what her fingers were doing. They were closed around the little
lump that the ring made in the bosom of her gown, and she had not known
it. What if she had rushed in to Kerr with this extraordinary
manifestation? What if, while she was talking to him, her hand should
continue to creep up again and yet again to that place, and close around
the jewel, and make it evident, even in its hiding-place? The time had
come when she must even hide it from herself. And yet, to creep back up
the stair when she made sure Kerr must have heard her tumultuous
downward rush! It would never do to soundlessly retreat. She must go
back boldly, as if she had forgotten nothing more considerable than a
pocket handkerchief.

Yet before she reached the top again she found herself going tiptoe, as
if she were on an expedition so secret that her own ears should not hear
her footsteps. But she went direct and unhesitating. It had come to her
all in a flash where she wo