“Fond of the things which meant life to him,” Philip muttered.

“I should never have believed that you had the courage,” she observed ruminatingly.  “After all, then, he wasn’t faithless.  He wasn’t the brute I thought him.”

She sat thinking for what seemed to him to be an interminable time.  He broke in at last upon her meditations.

“Well,” he asked, “what are you going to say to Dane?”

“I shan’t give you away—­at least I don’t think so,” she promised cautiously.  “I shall see.  Presently I will make terms, only this time I am not going to be left.  I am going to have what I want.”

“But he’ll be waiting to hear from you!” Philip exclaimed.  “He may come here, even.”

She shook her head.

“He’s gone to Chicago.  He can’t be back for five days.  I promised to wire, but I shan’t.  I’ll wait until he’s back.  And in the meantime—­”

Her fingers closed upon the deposit note.  He nodded shortly.

“That’s yours,” he said.  “You can have it all.  I have helped myself to a fresh start in life at his expense.  That’s all I wanted.”

She folded up the paper and thrust it carefully into the bosom of her gown.  Then she stood up.

“Well,” she pronounced, “I think I am getting used to things.  It’s wonderful how callous one can become.  The banks are closed now, I suppose?”

He nodded.

“They will be open at nine o’clock in the morning.”

“First of all, then,” she decided, “I’ll make sure of my twenty thousand pounds, and then we’ll see.  I don’t think you’ll find me hard, Philip.  I ought not to be hard on you, ought I?”

She looked at him most kindly, and he began to shiver.  Curiously enough, her very kindness, when he realised the knowledge which lay behind her brain, was hateful to him.  He had pleaded for her forgiveness, even her toleration, but—­anything else seemed horrible!  She strolled across the room and glanced at the clock, took one of his cigarettes from a box and lit it.

“Well, this is queer!” she murmured reflectively.  “Now I want some dinner, and I’ll see your play, Philip.  You shall take me.  Get ready quickly, please.”

He looked at her doubtfully.

“But, Beatrice,” he protested, “think!  You know why you came here?  You know the story you will have to tell?  We are strangers, you and I. What if we are seen together?”

She snapped her fingers at him.

“Pooh!  Who cares!  I am a stranger in New York, and I have taken a fancy to you.  You are a young man of gallantry, and you are going to take me out....  We often used to talk of a little excursion like this in London.  We’ll have it in New York instead.”

He turned slowly towards the door of his bedroom.  She was busy looking at her own eyes in the mirror, and she missed the little gleam of horror in his face.

“In ten minutes,” he promised her.