the one I have to offer? It has its difficulties, but it is not
an onerous one. It is that of companion to my wife."

I bowed; possibly I smiled. I do smile sometimes when a ray of
real sunshine darts across my pathway.

"I should be very glad to try such a situation," I replied.

A look of relief, so vivid that it startled me, altered at once
the whole character of his countenance; and perceiving how
intense was the power and fascination underlying his quiet
exterior, I asked myself who and what this man was; no ordinary
personage, I was sure, but who? Had Miss Davies purposely
withheld his name? I began to think so.

"I have had some experience," I was proceeding--

But he waved this consideration aside, with a change back to his
former gloomy aspect, and a careful glance at the door which did
not escape me.

"It is not experience which is so much needed as discretion."

Again that word.

"The case is not a common one, or, rather,"--he caught himself up
quickly, "the circumstances are not. My wife is well, but--she
is not happy. She is very unhappy, deeply, unaccountably so, and
I do not know why."