V


Ridgeley did not come home to dinner. He telephoned that he would be
late. It was close and warm. Christopher, sitting with Anne and Jeanette
on the porch, decided that a storm was brewing.

Anne was restless. She went down into the garden, and Christopher
followed her. She wore white, and he was aware of the rose scent. He
picked a rose for her as he passed through the garden. "Bend your head,
and I'll put it in your hair."

"I can't wear pink."

"It is white in the dusk--" He put his hands on her shoulders, stopped
her, and stuck the rose behind her ear. Then he let her go.

They came to the grove of birches, and sat down on the stone seat. It
had grown dark, and the lightning flashing up from the horizon gave to
the birches a spectral whiteness--Anne was a silver statue.

"It was queer," she said, "about the old man at the circus."

"About the beads?"

"Yes. I wonder what he meant, Christopher? _'What you think is
evil--cannot be evil'?_ Do you think he meant--Death?"

He did not answer at once, then he said, abruptly, "Anne, how did it
happen that you and Ridgeley drifted apart?"