them and tried them on for a moment. You must remember that I was his
affianced wife. I talked with Mrs. Dant, and prepared myself for
dinner, and then I went back to the drawing-room, and found Mr. Tudor
ready for dinner. I asked him why he had got the clothes, and he said he
had got them this very morning merely on the chance of my accepting his
proposal out of pity for him. And I believed that, too.'

There was a silence.

'But that is not the end?' Hugo encouraged her.

'Oh,' she exclaimed, 'it is useless, all this story! And the episode is
finished! When I came in here I was angry; I suspect you of some
complicity. But I suspect you no longer, and I see now that the wisest
course for a woman such as I after such an adventure is to be mute about
it, and to forget it.'

'No,' he said; 'you are wrong. Trust me. I entreat.'

Camilla bit her lip.

'We went into the dining-room, and dinner was served,' she recommenced,
'and there I had my first shock, my first doubt, for one of the two
waiters was your spy.'

'Shawn! My detective!'

Hugo was surprised to find that Albert, almost a novice in his
vocation, had contrived to be so insinuating.