The door was closed again. Father Benwell stood still as a statue in
the recess, with his head down, deep in thought. After a while he roused
himself, and rapidly returned to the writing table. With a roughness
strangely unlike his customary deliberation of movement, he snatched a
sheet of paper out of the case, and frowning heavily, wrote these lines
on it:--"Since my letter was sealed, I have made a discovery which must
be communicated without the loss of a post. I greatly fear there may be
a woman in our way. Trust me to combat this obstacle as I have combated
other obstacles. In the meantime, the work goes on. Penrose has received
his first instructions, and has to-day been presented to Romayne."

He addressed this letter to Rome, as he had addressed the letter
preceding it. "Now for the woman!" he said to himself--and opened the
door of the picture gallery.



CHAPTER IV.

FATHER BENWELL HITS.

ART has its trials as well as its triumphs. It is powerless to assert
itself against the sordid interests of everyday life. The greatest book
ever written, the finest picture ever painted, appeals in vain to minds
preoccupied by selfish and secret cares. On entering Lord Loring's
gallery, Father Benwell found but one person who was not looking at the
pictures under false pretenses.

Innocent of all suspicion of the conflicting interests whose struggle
now centered in himself, Romayne was carefully studying the picture