them. The uselessness of words smote him. She spoke again, an urgent
flow of dulcet sound against his ear; but it was without meaning, lost
in the drumming of his blood. The stir of feet approached, and he
released her, moving to the fireplace. It was Caroline. She stopped
awkwardly, advancing a needless explanation of a trivial errand from the
doorway, and vanished.

His position at Myrtle Forge was fast becoming impossible. There would
be an explosion now at any moment. He took the fire tongs and idly
rearranged the wood on the hearth. The flames blazed more brightly,
their reflection squirmed over the lacquer frames on the walls, gleamed
richly on polished black walnut, and fell across the Turkey floor
carpet. It even reached through the pale candle light and flickered on
Ludowika's dull red gown, flowered and clouded with blue. She was turned
away from him, against the window; her shoulders drooped in an attitude
of dejection. The flames died away again.




IX


Ludowika's manner toward him became self-possessed, even animated; and,
Howat thought, preoccupied. She was expectant, with a slightly impatient
air, as if she were looking beyond his shoulder. The cause occurred to
him in a flash that ignited his anger like a ready-charged explosive.
She was waiting, desiring, the return of her husband. Felix Winscombe,
she thought, would mean--escape. He used the word deliberately,
realizing that that now expressed her attitude toward the Province,