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Rh don't have your first shooting-party till the second week in December, do you? Do take me on the yacht. Just you and I."

Something that had slumbered in Edgar's mind since the night of the thunderstorm at Brayton suddenly stirred and lifted its head.

"Let's ask Charlie to come with us," he said. "Maud, of course, wouldn't; she hates the sea."

And he looked across to his wife, watching her narrowly. He saw her bosom heave suddenly, and there was a perceptible change of colour. And when she spoke her voice, for a sentence or two, was not quite steady.

"How nice of you to think of Charlie!" she said. "Of course, he is a dear, but do you think he would be a good third on the yacht? I'm not sure that I do. How horrid of me, when Charlie is such a friend! But somehow I don't see him and you and me together. Let us ask half a dozen people, if you will, and let Charlie be one, but otherwise let us go alone."

Lucia got up; she felt that Edgar was watching her, and for that reason forbore to look at him, for she knew that hate, hostility, must come into her face if she did. But again and again she asked herself why he had suggested that. Did it mean anything? Did he say it with purpose? And why was he watching her? Already that one moment of ungovernable emotion which had seized her at the very unexpected suggestion was past, and she wondered if any sign of it had escaped her. That she could not tell: she knew only that her heart had suddenly begun to beat very quickly when the suggestion was made. But it got quiet again quite soon.

"I cannot fail to be charmed by your preference for my undiluted society," he said, "and I think that even you would find it hard to get half a dozen people to come with us at so short a notice as this will have to be."

Again she wondered if anything lurked below his words. It was the sort of sentiment, slightly pompous in expression, that was quite characteristic of him; but was that all? And then, with a want of wisdom that would have made Madge wring hands of despair, she thought that even if there was something below, she could easily disarm it, instead of which she but gave it a weapon the more. Had she jumped at the idea of asking Charlie to join them, Edgar, given that there was anything sinister in his suggestion, would have concluded that his suspicions were baseless. But her rejection of a companionship