Mrs. Pomeroy and her daughter called on Mrs. Romayne a day or two later. It was Mrs. Romayne’s “day,” of course; the room was very full, and as Mrs. Pomeroy said, with an expression as near apprehension as was compatible with her placidity in the eyes which kept turning to her daughter’s demure face: “Wednesday is such a popular day, and we’ve really dozens of calls to pay, haven’t we, Maud?” Consequently they stayed barely ten minutes, and exchanged half-a-dozen sentences with their hostess. But short and formal as the call was, it was supplemented by no more intimate intercourse. They met, of course, nearly every day. That is to say, Mrs. Romayne, as she went about indefatigably from party to party, caught constant glimpses of Miss Pomeroy and her mother just arriving as she left, just leaving as she arrived, just going to supper, to tea, to fulfil some social duty or other which made it impossible that more than a word or two should pass. When Mrs. Romayne pressed Miss Pomeroy, with sprightly reproaches, to come and see her, she was met invariably with unmeaning smiles, and vague words about engagements, which, gentle as they sounded, proved as little capable of manipulation as a stone. Once or twice after such a meeting, Mrs. Romayne’s jokes at Julian’s expense, as she told him of them airily afterwards--Julian and Miss Pomeroy never seemed to meet now--took the form of hints and innuendoes as to whether he was not at the bottom of “the mystery,” as she called it; and whether he could not perhaps sweep it away. There was a terrible contrast between the casual gaiety with which such hints were dropped by her, and the something which lay behind; something which gave her voice a strange, unnatural ring, and cut her words off almost before they had any meaning; something the name of which, as it lurked in the hard, bright eyes which never met Julian’s, was nervous fear. Such hints were always met and turned by Julian as lightly as they were uttered. Before a fortnight had passed since Miss Pomeroy’s departure, Mrs. Romayne had acquired a habit of giving one quick, almost furtive, glance round any room she entered in which people were assembled, and that look was particularly eager and intent as she entered a drawing-room to fulfil an engagement for a luncheon-party one day at the beginning of the third week. A luncheon is by no means a bad opportunity for a “quiet chat.” She did not see the figures she was in search of, though no one could have detected that fact from her expression. Nor could any one have interpreted the sudden exclamation of surprise she uttered. “Why, it’s Dennis Falconer!” she said prettily. “I had no idea you were in town.”