She entered the tiny hall.  It was square, and served them as a sitting-room.  Coming in from the glare without, she was momentarily dazzled.  And then all suddenly her eyes lighted upon an unaccustomed object, and her heart ceased to beat.  A man’s tweed cap lay carelessly tossed upon the back of a chair!

She stood quite still, feeling her senses reel, knowing herself to be on the verge of fainting, and clinging with all her strength to her tottering self-control.

Gradually she recovered, felt her heart begin to beat again and the deadly faintness pass.  There was a telegram on the table.  She took it up, found it addressed to herself, opened it with fumbling fingers.

“Tell Jeanie I am coming to-day.  Piers.”

It had arrived an hour before, and she was conscious of a vague sense of thankfulness that she had been spared that hour of awful certainty.

A door opened at the top of the stairs.  A voice spoke.  “I’ll come back, my queen.  But I’ve got to pay my respects, you know, to the mistress of the establishment, or she’ll be cross.  Do you remember the Avery symphony?  We’ll have it presently.”

A light step followed the voice.  Already he was on the stairs.  He came bounding down to her like an eager boy.  For one wild moment she thought he was going to throw his arms about her.  But he stopped himself before he reached her.

“I say, how ill you look!” he said.

That was all the greeting he uttered, and in the same moment she saw that the black hair above his forehead was powdered with white.  It sent such a shock through her as no word or action of his could have caused.

She stood for a moment gazing at him in stiff inaction.  Then, still stiffly, she held out her hand.  But she could not utter a word.  She felt as if she were going to burst into tears.

He took the hand.  His dark eyes interrogated her, but they told her nothing.  “It’s all right,” he said rapidly.  “I’m Jeanie’s visitor.  I shan’t forget it.  It was decent of you to send.  I say, you—­you are not really ill, what?”

No, she was not ill.  She heard herself telling him so in a voice she did not know.  And all the while she felt as if her heart were bleeding, bleeding to death.

He let her hand go, and straightened himself with the old free arrogance of movement.  “May I have something to eat?” he said.  “Your message only got to me this morning.  I was at breakfast, and I had to leave it to catch the train.  So I’ve had practically nothing.”

That moved her to activity.  She led the way into the little parlour where luncheon had been laid.  He sat down at the table, and she waited upon him, almost in silence, yet no longer with embarrassment.

“Aren’t you going to join me?” he said.

She sat down also, and took a minute helping of cold chicken.

“I say, you’re not going to eat all that!” ejaculated Piers.