 with a curious smile, was
admitted, and waited a minute or two in the drawing-room. Miriam entered, and
shook hands with him, coldly courteous, distantly dignified.
    »I am sorry Mrs. Spence is not at home.«
    »I came to see you, Mrs. Baske. I have just met them, and heard that you
have news from Paris.«
    »Only a note, sending a temporary address.«
    He observed her as she spoke, and let silence follow.
    »You would like to know it - the address?« she added, meeting his look with
a rather defiant steadiness.
    »No, thank you. It will be enough if I know where they finally settle. You
saw Mrs. Elgar before she left?«
    »No.«
    »I'm sorry to hear that.«
    Miriam's face was clouded. She sat very stiffly, and averted her eyes as if
to ignore his remark. Mallard, who had been holding his hat and stick in
conventional manner, threw them both aside, and leaned his elbow on the back of
the settee.
    »I should like,« he said deliberately, »to ask you a question which sounds
impertinent, but which I think you will understand is not really so. Will you
tell me how you regard Mrs. Elgar? I mean, is it your wish to be still as
friendly with her as you once were? Or do you, for whatever reason, hold aloof
from her?«
    »Will you explain to me, Mr. Mallard, why you think yourself justified in
asking such a question?«
    In both of them there were signs of nervous discomposure. Miriam flushed a
little; the artist moved from one attitude to another, and began to play
destructively with a tassel.
    »Yes,« he answered. »I have a deep interest in Mrs. Elgar's welfare - that
needs no explaining - and I have reason to fear that something in which I was
recently concerned may have made you less disposed to think of her as I wish you
to. Is it so or not?«
    Her answer was uttered with difficulty.
    »What can it matter how I think of her?«
    »That is the point. To my mind it matters a great deal. For instance, it
seems to me a deplorable thing that you, her sister in more senses than one,
should have kept apart from her when she so much needed a woman's sympathy. Of
course, if you had no true sympathy to give her, there'
