The music was beautiful.  There was about it a staid, sad dignity; and it seemed to Margaret fit thus to adore God.  But it did not move her.  She could not understand the words that the priests chanted; their gestures, their movements to and fro, were strange to her.  For her that stately service had no meaning.  And with a great cry in her heart she said that God had forsaken her.  She was alone in an alien land.  Evil was all about her, and in those ceremonies she could find no comfort.  What could she expect when the God of her fathers left her to her fate?  So that she might not weep in front of all those people, Margaret with down-turned face walked to the door.  She felt utterly lost.  As she walked along the interminable street that led to her own house, she was shaken with sobs.

‘God has forsaken me,’ she repeated.  ‘God has foresaken me.’

Next day, her eyes red with weeping, she dragged herself to Haddo’s door.  When he opened it, she went in without a word.  She sat down, and he watched her in silence.

‘I am willing to marry you whenever you choose,’ she said at last.

‘I have made all the necessary arrangements.’

‘You have spoken to me of your mother.  Will you take me to her at once.’

The shadow of a smile crossed his lips.

‘If you wish it.’

Haddo told her that they could be married before the Consul early enough on the Thursday morning to catch a train for England.  She left everything in his hands.

‘I’m desperately unhappy,’ she said dully.

Oliver laid his hands upon her shoulders and looked into her eyes.

‘Go home, and you will forget your tears.  I command you to be happy.’

Then it seemed that the bitter struggle between the good and the evil in her was done, and the evil had conquered.  She felt on a sudden curiously elated.  It seemed no longer to matter that she deceived her faithful friends.  She gave a bitter laugh, as she thought how easy it was to hoodwink them.

* * * * *

Wednesday happened to be Arthur’s birthday, and he asked her to dine with him alone.

‘We’ll do ourselves proud, and hang the expense,’ he said.

They had arranged to eat at a fashionable restaurant on the other side of the river, and soon after seven he fetched her.  Margaret was dressed with exceeding care.  She stood in the middle of the room, waiting for Arthur’s arrival, and surveyed herself in the glass.  Susie thought she had never been more beautiful.

‘I think you’ve grown more pleasing to look upon than you ever were,’ she said.  ’I don’t know what it is that has come over you of late, but there’s a depth in your eyes that is quite new.  It gives you an odd mysteriousness which is very attractive.’