closet door and took out a thick eider-down robe, which she tossed
across a chair. "Now call up the office and say that you are speaking
for me. Say to them that I must have something to eat, no matter
what the hour may be. I will get out some clean underwear for you,
and--Oh, yes; if they ask about me, say that I am cold and ill.
That is sufficient. Here is the bath. Please be as quick about it
as possible."

Moving as if in a dream, the girl did as she was told. Twenty minutes
later there was a knock at the door. A waiter appeared with a tray
and service table. He found Mrs. Wrandall lying back in a chair,
attended by a slender young woman in a pink eiderdown dressing-gown,
who gave hesitating directions to him. Then he was dismissed with
a handsome tip, produced by the same young woman.

"You are not to return for these things," she said as he went out.

In silence she ate and drank, her hostess looking on with gloomy
interest. It was no shock to Mrs. Wrandall to find that the girl,
who was no more than twenty-two or three, possessed unusual beauty.
Her great eyes were blue,--the lovely Irish blue,--her skin was
fair and smooth, her features regular and of the delicate mould
that defines the well-bred gentlewoman at a glance. Her hair, now
in order, was dark and thick and lay softly about her small ears
and neck. She was not surprised, I repeat, for she had never known
Challis Wrandall to show interest in any but the most attractive
of her sex. She found herself smiling bitterly as she looked.

To herself she was saying: "It isn't so hard to bear when I realise
that he betrayed me for one who is so much more beautiful than I.