Was it his fancy, or was there a gleam of satisfaction about her still, pale face? He went on. "I don't want to play the hypocrite. On the other hand I don't want all that I have done to go for nothing. Can you advise me?" "No, nor any one else," she answered, softly. "Yet I can perhaps correct a little your point of view. I think that you overestimate your indebtedness to the woman whom you have made your wife. Her husband was a weak, dissipated creature and he was a doomed man long before that unfortunate day. It is even very questionable whether that scene in which you figured had anything whatever to do in hastening his death. That is a good many years ago, and ever since then you seem to have impoverished yourself to find her the means to live in luxury. I consider that you paid your debt over and over again, and that your final act of self-abnegation was entirely uncalled for. What more she wants from you I do not know. Perhaps I can imagine." There was a moment's silence. She turned her head and looked at him--looked him in the eyes unshamed, yet with her secret shining there for him to see. "There may be others, Lawrence," she said, "to whom you owe something. A woman cannot take back what she has given. There may be sufferers in the world whom you ought also to consider. And a woman loves to think that what she may not have herself is at least kept sacred--to her memory." "Fore!" cried Lord Redford, who had found his ball. "Awfully decent of you people to wait so long. We were afraid you meant to claim the hole!" Mannering rose to play his shot. "The Duchess and I, Lord Redford," he said, lightly, "scorn to take small advantages. We mean to play the game!" CHAPTER IX THE TRAGEDY OF A KEY Blanche, in a plain black net gown, sat on Lord Redford's right hand at the hastily improvised dinner party that evening. Berenice, more subtly and more magnificently dressed, was opposite, by Mannering's side. The conversation seemed mostly to circle about them. "A very charming place," Lord Redford declared. "I have enjoyed my stay here thoroughly. Let us hope that we may all meet here again next year," he added, raising his glass. "Mannering, you will drink to that, I hope?" "With all my heart," Mannering answered. "And you, Blanche?" She raised her almost untasted glass and touched it with her lips. She set it down with a faint smile. Berenice moved her head towards him. "Your wife is not very enthusiastic," she remarked. "She neither plays golf nor bathes," Mannering said. "It is possible that she finds it a little dull." "Both are habits which it is possible to acquire," Berenice answered. "I am telling your husband, Mrs. Mannering," she continued, "that you ought to learn to play golf." "Lawrence has offered to teach me more than once," Blanche answered, calmly. "I am afraid that games do not attract me. Besides, I am too old to learn!" "My dear Mrs. Mannering!" Lord Redford protested.