Hearing a footstep on the stairs, she drew herself behind the door, and when the sound passed downstairs she tried to reason with herself.  After all, the housemaid would have been merely surprised to find her in the drawing-room at that hour.  She could not have guessed why she was there.  She ran up the stairs, and when she had closed the door of her room she stood looking at the clock.  It was not yet seven, and Herat did not come to her room till half-past nine.  She must try to get to sleep between this and then.  She lay with her eyes closed, and did not perceive that a thin, shallow sleep had come upon her, for she continued to think the same thoughts; fear of God and hatred of sin assumed even more terrifying proportions, and she started like a hunted animal when Merat came in with her bath.  “I hope Mademoiselle is not ill?” “No, I am not ill, only I have not slept at all.”

In order to distract her thoughts, she went for a walk after breakfast in the park, but any casual sight sufficed to recall them to the one important question.  She could not see the children sailing their toy boats without thinking her ambitions were as futile, and a chance glimpse of a church spire frightened her so that she turned her back and walked the other way.  In the afternoon she tried to interest herself in some music, but her hands dropped from the keys, so useless did it appear to her.  At four she was dreaming of Owen in an armchair.  The servant suddenly announced him, and he came in, seemingly recovered from his gout and his old age.  His figure was the perfect elegance of a man of forty-three, and in such beautiful balance that an old admiration awakened in her.  His “waistcoats and his valet,” she thought, catching sight of the embroideries and the pale, subdued, terrified air of the personal servant.  The valet carried a parcel which Evelyn guessed to be a present for her.  It was a tea-service of old Crown Derby that Owen had happened upon in Bath, and they spent some time examining its pale roses and gilt pattern.  She expected him to refer to their last interview, but he avoided doing so, preferring to take it for granted that he still was her lover, and he did so without giving her sufficient occasion to correct him on this point.  He was affectionate and intimate; he sat beside her on the sofa, and talked pleasantly of the benefit he had derived from the waters, of the boredom of hotel life, and of a concert given in aid of a charity.

“But that reminds me,” he said; “I heard about the Wimbledon concert, and was sorry you did not write to me for a subscription.  Lady Merrington told me about the nuns; they spent all their money building a chapel, and had not enough to eat.”

“I didn’t think you would care to subscribe to a convent.”

“Now, why did you think that?  Poor devils of nuns, shut up in a convent without enough to eat.  Of course I’ll subscribe; I’ll send them a cheque for ten pounds to-morrow.”