press upon her heart. Yet it
was an obstinate weight. It grew heavier as the taxi brought her nearer
home.

XVI

A QUOTATION FROM SHAKESPEARE

"Not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
Perplexed in the extreme."

The words describing Othello's torment rang in Roger Sands' ears.

The words kept time with the purring throb of the motor that sped him on
his wife's errand. Certain it was that he had not been easily jealous!

He had married a girl with a secret to keep, and he had never questioned
her. He had made her a queen; and he was her loyal subject. She ruled
him and his kingdom. Only to-day he had given her a queen's pearls. They
were his atonement for an hour of distrust. How had she rewarded him?
Roger reviewed the afternoon, since the presentation of the pearls, and
there were details which he saw in a new light. So desperate had been
her mysterious haste that she had broken the rope of pearls, and had not
even stopped to pick up the scattered splendour.

Roger Sands' heart had been hard toward his wife when they met. He had
settled upon a policy of silence for the present, while in
self-protection he watched developments. He agreed quietly to Beverley's
request that he should fetch the pearl-stringer, though feeling a cold,
sick certainty of her motive in making it.

He went, as he had given his word that he would go, to 27 Elm Street,
Yonkers. Miss Blackburne herself answered his ring: and when the name of
Clo Riley was mentioned, she said at once that she would accompany Mr.
Sands. Roger was kept waiting only while Miss Blackburne took leave of
her mother, gathered together her materials, and packed a small bag; for
it was clear that, if the pearl-stringer were to finish her work in one
sitting, she would have to spend the night in Park Avenue.

The little woman, whose face seemed almost featureless to Roger Sands,
was interested in the man as well as in the mission. The pearl-stringer
had often heard of him in various ways; and her work took her into a set
who knew, or gossiped, about his private affairs. She had listened to
women's talk concerning Mrs. Sands, "the girl from nowhere," and, though
Miss Blackburne was "good as gold," she did enjoy a little spicy
scandal. She could in future make herself quite interesting to some of
her regular clients by telling how she had worked for Mrs. Roger Sands;
and not only for their sakes, but her own, did she look forward to this
"job."

Sec