CHAPTER

1.  Miss Ingate, and the yacht 2.  The THIEF’S plan wrecked 3.  The legacy 4.  Mr. Foulger 5.  The dead hand 6.  The young widow 7.  The cigarette girl 8.  Exploitation of widowhood 9.  Life in Paris 10.  Fancy dress 11.  A political refugee 12.  Widowhood in the studio 13.  The swoon 14.  Miss Ingate points out the door 15.  The right bank 16.  Robes 17.  Soiree 18.  A decision 19.  The boudoir 20.  Paget gardens 21.  Jane 22.  The detective 23.  The blue city 24.  The Spatts 25.  The mute 26.  Nocturne 27.  In the garden 28.  Encounter 29.  Flight 30.  Ariadne 31.  The nostrum 32.  By the binnacle 33.  Aguilar’s double life 34.  The tank-room 35.  The third sort of woman 36.  In the dinghy 37.  Afloat 38.  In the universe 39.  The imminent drive 40.  Genius at Bay 41.  Financial news 42.  Interval 43.  ENTR’ACTE 44.  End of the concert 45.  Strange result of A quarrel 46.  An epilogue

CHAPTER I

MISS INGATE, AND THE YACHT

Audrey had just closed the safe in her father’s study when she was startled by a slight noise.  She turned like a defensive animal to face danger.  It had indeed occurred to her that she was rather like an animal in captivity, and she found a bitter pleasure in the idea, though it was not at all original.

“And Flank Hall is my Zoo!” she had said. (Not that she had ever seen the Zoological Gardens or visited London.)

She was lithe; she moved with charm.  Her short, plain blue serge walking-frock disclosed the form of her limbs and left them free, and it made her look younger even than she was.  Its simplicity suited her gestures and took grace from them.  But she wore the old thing without the least interest in it—­almost unconsciously.  She had none of the preoccupations caused by the paraphernalia of existence.  She scarcely knew what it was to own.  She was aware only of her body and her soul.  Beyond these her possessions were so few, so mean, so unimportant, that she might have carried them to the grave and into heaven without protest from the authorities earthly or celestial.