She started, however, and the book fell to the floor, where it remained. And she rose to her feet when the owner of the card came in. The relict of Jerome Elstree was still young, and grief had as yet destroyed none of her beauty. She looked better, perhaps, in the morning--which says a great deal. 'Alec?' she murmured--her eyes as soft as her voice. 'I thought you would come this afternoon.' 'Are you quite alone, Mrs. Elstree?' he asked with a look of warning. 'Quite, Mr. Feilding. And, since the door is shut, and we are quite alone--why--then----' She laughed, held out both her hands, and put up her face like a child. He took her hands and bent to kiss her lips. 'Zoe,' he said, 'you grow lovelier every day. Last night----' He kissed her again. 'Lovelier than Philippa?' 'What is Philippa beside you? An iceberg beside a--a garden of flowers----' 'There is beauty in icebergs, I have read.' 'Never mind Philippa, dear Zoe. She is nothing to us.' 'I don't mind her a bit, Alec, if you don't. If you begin to mind her---- But we will wait until that happens. Why are you here to-day?' 'I have come to call upon Mrs. Elstree, widow of my poor friend Jerome Elstree.' 'Ce pauvre Jerome! The tears come into my eyes'--in fact, they did at that moment--'look!--when I think of him. So often have I spoken of his virtues and his untimely fate that he has really lived. I never before understood that there are ghosts of men who never lived as well as ghosts of the dead.' 'And I came to call upon your charge, Miss Rosevean.' 'Yes'--she said this dubiously, perhaps jealously--'so I supposed. Why did you send me here, Alec? You have always got some reason for everything. There was no need for my coming--I was doing as well as I expect to do.' The young man looked about the room without replying to this question. 'Someone,' he said presently, 'has furnished this room who knows furniture.' 'It was Armorel herself. I have no taste--as you know.' 'And how do you get on with her? Are you happy here, Zoe?' 'I am as happy as I ever expect to be--until----' 'Yes, yes,' he interrupted, impatiently. 'You like her, then?' 'I like her as much as I can like any woman. You know, Alec, I am not greatly in love with my own sex. If there were no other women in the world than just enough to dress me, get my dinner, and keep my house clean, I should not murmur. Eve was the happiest of women, in spite of the difficulties she must have had in keeping up with the fashion. Because, you see, she was the only woman.' 'No doubt. And now tell me about this girl.' 'She is rich. To be rich is everything. Money makes an angel of every woman. When I was eighteen, and first met you, Alec, I was rich. Then you saw the wings sticking out visibly one on each shoulder, didn't you? They are gone now--at least,' she looked over her shoulder, 'I see them no longer.' 'I heard she was rich. Where did the money come from?'