"Understand what?" she said haughtily. "Are you accusing me of breaking off Jane's engagement? I did not think, Dick, that even your dislike of me could go so far. Till she told me this morning, I had no idea she thought of doing such a thing." Wantele shrugged his shoulders, but he was determined not to lose his temper. "I don't accuse you," he said slowly, "and I don't wish to be unfair. We'll put it in another way, Athena. Lingard came--saw--was conquered! It's no use our discussing it at this time of day. Still less is it any use for you to try to deny it; you and I both know what happened. I think--nay, I'm quite sure--that if you were to go away, everything would come right between these two people." "And do you really wish everything to come right between Hew Lingard and Jane Oglander?" Athena looked at the man standing before her in a very singular manner. Her voice was charged with significance. He met her challenging look quite coolly. "Yes, I do wish it to come right," he said, "because I believe that it would be for Jane's ultimate happiness. Come, Athena, make an effort!" He spoke good-humouredly, as a grown-up person speaks to a spoilt child, and a cruel little devil entered into Mrs. Maule's mind. "Isn't it funny," she said lightly, "how Jane the Good, and I, Athena the Bad, always attract the same man? They don't always like us at the same time, but----" She stopped speaking, for Dick Wantele had turned and left the room, leaving the door open behind him, a thing he very seldom did. CHAPTER XVII "Nous devrions baiser les pantoufles de certaines femmes du côté où les pantoufles touchent à la terre, car en dedans ce serait tout au plus digne des anges." The long day came to an end at last. Jane felt a sense of almost physical relief in the knowledge that to-morrow night she would no longer be there, and yet she had not spoken of her decision to the others. For Athena Maule the day was not yet over. She waited till the house was sunk into darkness and stillness, and then, dismissing her maid, she put on a dressing-gown and went downstairs to the library. The book she had mentally marked down that morning was found by her in a moment; but instead of looking at it there she took it to her boudoir. It was possible that Wantele--Wantele who had been so rude and unkind to her this afternoon--might, like herself, feel wakeful, and come down to the library. With the heavy old law book in her arms, she made her way through the now dark corridor which ran the whole length of Rede Place till she reached her own sitting-room, and there, before turning up the light, she locked the door. Then she sat down, and drawing forward a little table she spread the book out open before her. The dying wood fire suddenly burst into flame; Athena looked round her. She wondered if she would ever have so pretty a room again.