etray him to Kerr by name.

Then, on the other hand, she doubted how much she could do with Harry.
She wasn't sure how far she was prepared to try him after that scene of
theirs. She had no desire to pique him further by seeing too much of
Kerr. On her own account she wanted for the present to avoid Kerr. He
roused a feeling in her that she feared--a feeling intoxicating to the
senses, dazzling to the mind, unknitting to the will. How could she
tell, if they were left alone together for a long enough space of time,
that she might not take the jewel from her neck, at his request, and
hand it to him--and damn them both? If only she could escape seeing him
altogether until she could find out what Harry was doing, and what she
must do!

Meanwhile, there was her promise to Ella. She recalled it with
difficulty. It seemed a vague thing in the light of her latest
discovery, though she could never meet Clara in disagreement without a
qualm. But she made the plunge that evening, before Clara left for the
Bullers', while she was at her dressing-table in the half-disarray which
brings out all the softness and the disarming physical charm of women.
From her low chair Flora spoke laughingly of Ella's perturbation. Clara
paused, with the powder puff in her hand, while she listened to Flora's
explanation of how Ella feared that some one might, after all these
years, be going to marry Judge Buller. Who this might be she did not
even hint at. She left it ever so sketchy. But the little stare with
which Clara met it, the amusement, the surprise, and then the shortest
possible little laugh, were guarantee that Clara had seen it all. She
had filled out Flora's sketch to the full outline, and pronounced it, as
Flora had, an absurdity. But though Clara had laughed she had gone away
with her delicate brows a little drawn together, as if she'd really
found more than a laugh, something worth considering, in Ella's state of
mind.

Flora was left with the uneasy feeling that perhaps she had unwittingly
delivered Ella into Clara's hands; that Ella, too, was in danger of
becoming part of Clara's schemes. Danger seemed to be spreading like
contagion. It was borne in upon her that from this time forward dangers
would multiply. That nothing was going to be easier, but everything
infinitely harder, to the end; and now was the time to act if ever she
hoped to make way through the tangle.

She heard the wheels of Clara's departing conveyance. Now was