her. "As a woman--don't you think she might?"

As Rachel hesitated the carriages began to groan beneath the brake; and
her hesitation was at an end. So also was her limited capacity for
pretence. She sat more upright in her corner, her shoulders fell in
angles, and beneath the veil, which she had raised to read her paper,
her eyes carried the war of interrogation into the enemy's country.

"I seem to have seen you before," said Rachel, cool of tongue but hot at
heart.

"I think it very possible that you have."

"Were you at the trial?"

"From first to last!"

The pause that followed was really broken by the lights of Sloane Square
station.

"You know me," said Rachel, hurriedly; "I have seen that for some time.
May I ask if you are Mr. Steel?"

"I am."

"The Mr. Steel who sent me his card after the trial?"

Steel bowed.

"As a perfect stranger?"