Mrs. Ussher stared at him in baffled, unhappy silence, and in the pause, the door quickly and silently opened and Christine herself entered.  She looked calm, almost Olympian, as she laid her hand on Laura’s arm.

“Let me have just a word alone with Mr. Riatt,” she said; and as Laura precipitately left the room, Christine turned to Riatt with a reassuring smile.  “Don’t be alarmed,” she said.  “Your most dangerous antagonist has just gone.  I’ve really come to rescue you.”  She sank into a chair.  “How exhausting scenes are.  Let me have a cigarette, will you?”

She smoked a moment in silence, while he stood erect and alert by the mantel-piece.  At last, glancing up at him, she said: 

“I suppose Laura was suggesting that you marry me?”

He nodded.

“Laura’s a dear, but not always very wise.  You see, she thinks we are both so wonderful, she can’t believe we wouldn’t make each other happy.  And from her point of view, it is rather an obvious solution.  You see, she does not know about that paragon in the Middle West.”

“She existed only in my imagination.”

“Oh, a dream-lady,” said Christine, and her eyes brightened a little.  “No wonder you thought her too good for Ned.  Well, that brings me to what I came to tell you.  I have decided to marry Edward Hickson.”

There was a blank and rather flat pause, during which Riatt took his cigarette from his mouth and very carefully studied the ash, but could think of nothing to say.  The thought in his mind was that Hickson was a dull dog.

“Have you told Hickson?” he asked after a moment.

She shook her head.  “No, and I shan’t till I get more accustomed to the idea myself.  It isn’t exactly an easy idea to get accustomed to.  The prospect is not lively.”

“I dare say you will contrive to make it as lively as possible.”

She smiled drearily.  “How very poorly you do think of me!  I shan’t make Ned a bad wife.  He will be very happy, and Nancy and I will be like sisters.  By the way, you’re not in love with Nancy, are you?”

“Certainly not.”

“Good.  They all say it’s a dog’s life.”  She yawned.  “Oh, isn’t everything tiresome!  If I had had any idea my filial deed in going to find my father’s coat would have resulted in my having to marry Ned, I never would have gone.”

Riatt struggled in silence.  He wanted—­any man would have wanted—­to ask her whether there wasn’t some other way out; but knowing that he himself was the only other way, he refrained and asked instead:  “Is there anything I can do to help you?”

“There is,” she responded promptly.  “Rather a disagreeable thing, too.  But it will be all over in an instant, and you can take your afternoon train and forget all about us.  Will you do it?”

He hesitated, and she went on: 

“Ah, cautious to the last!  It’s just a demonstration, a beau geste.  It’s this:  You see, the situation, as I have discovered from a little talk with Ned, is more ugly than has yet appeared.  They are holding one thing up their sleeve.  Ned, it seems, noticed the track of your feet leaving the house, and it did not stop snowing until the morning.  That was rather careless of you, wasn’t it?  Nancy can make a good deal of that one little fact.”