aware of the gesture in the dark. Yes, she liked him. And she felt
suddenly gay and light-hearted, as she had felt in the days when she
first met Ridgeley.

They talked until the stars shone in the tips of the birch trees.
Ridgeley did not come, and when they went back to the house, they found
that he had been called to New York on an urgent case. He would not
return until the following Friday.

Anne and Christopher were thus left together for a week to get
acquainted. With only old Jeanette Ware to play propriety.



II


It did not take Christopher long to decide that Ridgeley was no longer
in love with his wife. "Of course he would call it love. But he could
live just as well without her. He has made a machine of himself."

He spoke to Dunbar one night about Anne. "Do you think she is perfectly
well?"

"Why not?"

"There's a touch of breathlessness when we walk. Are you sure about her
heart?"

"She has never been strong--" and that had seemed to be the end of it.