So he left her without explanation, and Nina went drearily to bed.  On the following morning, however, the sun shone upon her, and she went downstairs in better spirits.

The first person she encountered was her husband.  He was sauntering about the morning-room in his overcoat, a cup of strong tea in his hand.

He greeted her perfunctorily, as his fashion was.

“Oh, good-morning!” he said.  “I have only just got back.  I was detained unavoidably.  I am going upstairs for an hour’s rest, and then I shall be off to the City.  I don’t know if you would care to drive in with me.  I shall use the car, but it will then be at your service for the rest of the day.”

“Have you been working all night?” Nina asked incredulously.

He nodded.

“It was unavoidable,” he said again, with a touch of impatience.  “You had better have a second brew of tea, this is too strong for you.”

He set down his cup and rang the bell.

Nina stood and looked at him.  He certainly did not look like a man who had been up all night.  Alert, active, tough as wire, he walked back to the table and gathered together his letters.  A faint feeling of admiration stirred in her heart.  His, strength appealed to her for the first time.

“I should like to drive into the City with you,” she said, after a pause.

He gave her a sharp glance.

“I thought you would be wanting to go to the bank,” he remarked coolly.

She flushed and turned her back upon him.  It was an unprovoked assault, and she resented it fiercely.

When they met again an hour later she was on the defensive, ready to resist his keenest thrust, and, seeing it, he laughed cynically.

“Armed to the teeth?” he asked, with a careless glance at her slim figure and delicate face.

She did not answer him by so much as a look.  He handed her into the car and took his seat beside her.

“Can you manage to dine out with some of your people to-night?” he asked.  “I am afraid I shall not be home till late.”

“You seem to have a great deal on your hands,” she remarked coldly.

“Yes,” said Wingarde.

It was quite obvious that he had no intention of taking her into his confidence, and Nina was stubbornly determined to betray no interest.  Then and there she resolved that since he chose to give himself up entirely to the amassing of wealth, not hesitating to slight his wife in the process, she also would live her separate life wholly independent of his movements.

She pretended to herself that she would make the most of it.  But deep in her heart she hated him for thus setting her aside.  His action pierced straight through her pride to something that sheltered behind it, and inflicted a grevious wound.

V

A STRUGGLE FOR MASTERY

“Jove!  Here’s a crush!” laughed Archie Neville.  “Delighted to meet you again, Mrs. Wingarde!  How did you find the Lakes?”