He saw in her eyes already the beginning of the picture. In a few days the painting would be complete. But this was all as a side issue. His business, as far as these people were concerned, was over. Without looking at anyone, he too left the room. It had been difficult, but after he had had Lady Gale’s assurance the rest didn’t matter. Of course the old man was bound to take it like that, but he would probably soon see it differently. And at any rate, as far as he, Maradick, was concerned, that—Sir Richard’s attitude to him personally—didn’t matter in the very least. But all that affair seemed, indeed, now of secondary importance. The first and only vital matter now was his relations with his wife. Everything must turn to that. Her clasp of his hand had touched him infinitely, profoundly. For the first time in their married lives she wanted him. Sir Richard, Mrs. Lester, even Tony, seemed small, insignificant in comparison with that. But he must tell her everything—he saw that. All about Mrs. Lester, everything—otherwise they would never start clear. She was just finishing her dressing when he came into her room. She turned quickly from her dressing-table towards him. “I’m just ready,” she said. “Wait a minute,” he answered her. “Before we go in to the girls there’s something, several things, that I want to say.” His great clumsy body moved across the floor, and he sat down hastily in a chair by the dressing-table. She watched him anxiously with her sharp little eyes. “Yes,” she said, “only hurry up. I’m hungry.” “Well, there are two things really,” he answered slowly. “Things you’ve got to know.” She noticed one point, that he didn’t apologise in advance as he would have done three weeks ago. There were no apologies now, only a stolid determination to get through with it. “First, it’s about young Tony Gale. I’ve just been telling his family. He married a girl yesterday and ran off to Paris with her. You can bet the family are pleased.” Mrs. Maradick was excited. “Not really! Really eloped? That Gale boy! How splendid! A real elopement! Of course one could see that something was up. His being out so much, and so on; I knew. But just fancy! Really doing it! Won’t old Sir Richard——!” Her eyes were sparkling. The romance of it had obviously touched her, it was very nearly as though one had eloped oneself, knowing the boy and everything! Then he added, “I had to tell them. You see, I’ve known about it all the time, been in it, so to speak. Helped them to arrange it and so on, and Sir Richard had a word or two to say to me just now about it.” “So _that’s_ what you’ve been doing all this time. _That’s_ your secret!” She was just as pleased as she could be. “That’s what’s changed you. Of course! One might have guessed!” But behind her excitement and pleasure he detected also, he thought, a note of disappointment that puzzled him. What had she thought that he had been doing?