to a sudden standstill as they crossed the threshold.

"Why is the table laid for two only?" she demanded. "Mr. Palliser is
here."

"I was obliged to send Tony away--on important business," Tallente
intervened. "He left about an hour ago."

Once more the terror was upon her. The fingers which gripped her napkin
trembled. Her eyes, filled with fierce enquiry, were fixed upon her
husband's as he took his place in leisurely fashion and glanced at the
menu.

"Obliged to send Tony away?" she repeated. "I don't understand. He
told me that he had several days' work here with you."

"Something intervened," he murmured.

"Why didn't you wire?" she faltered, almost under her breath. "He
couldn't have had any time to get ready."

Andrew Tallente looked at his wife across the bowl of floating flowers.

"Ah!" he exclaimed. "I didn't think of that. But in any case I did not
make up my mind until I arrived that it was necessary for him to go."

There was silence for a time, an unsatisfactory and in some respects an
unnatural silence. Tallente trifled with his _hors d'oeuvres_ and was
inquisitive about the sauce with which his fish was flavoured. Stella
sent away her plate untouched, but drank two glasses of champagne. The