Lord Newhaven laughed.

Hugh stood a moment, and then went out.




CHAPTER III

"Is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband?"


When Lady Newhaven slipped out of the supper-room after her husband and
Hugh, and lingered at the door of the study, she did not follow them
with the deliberate intention of eavesdropping, but from a vague impulse
of suspicious anxiety. Yet she crouched in her white satin gown against
the door listening intently.

Neither man moved within, only one spoke. There was no other sound to
deaden her husband's distinct, low voice. The silence that followed his
last words, "Will you draw?" was broken by his laugh, and she had barely
time to throw herself back from the door into a dark recess under the
staircase before Hugh came out. He almost touched her as he passed. He
must have seen her, if he had been capable of seeing anything; but he
went straight on unheeding. And as she stole a few steps to gaze after
him, she saw him cross the hall and go out into the night without his
hat and coat, the amazed servants staring after him.

She drew back to go up-stairs, and met her husband coming slowly out of