A quick shade of expression crossed French's face, which his wife knew to mean that whenever Roger was out by himself there was cause for anxiety. But the familiar trouble was immediately swallowed up in the new and pressing one. "What can that woman have come to say?" he asked, half of himself, half of his wife, as he walked slowly back to the house. Elsie had conveyed the children to their nurse, and was beside him. "Perhaps she repents!" The tone was dry and short; it flung a challenge to misdoing. "I doubt it! But Roger?" French stood still, pondering. "Keep him, darling--intercept him if you can. If he must see her, I will come out. But we mustn't risk a shock." They consulted a little in low voices. Then French went into the house and Elsie came back to her children. She stood thinking, her fine face, so open-browed and purely lined, frowning and distressed. * * * * * "You wished to see me, Mrs. Barnes?" French had closed the door of the study behind him and stood without offering to shake hands with his visitor, coldly regarding her. Daphne rose from her seat, reddening involuntarily. "My name is no longer what you once knew it, Mr. French. I sent you my card." French made a slight inclination and pointed to the chair from which she had risen. "Pray sit down. May I know what has brought you here?" Daphne resumed her seat, her small hands fidgeting on her parasol. "I wished to come and consult with you, Mr. French. I had heard a distressing account of--of Roger, from a friend in America." "I see," said French, on whom a sudden light dawned. "You met Boyson at Niagara--that I knew--and you are here because of what he said to you?" "Yes, partly." The speaker looked round the room, biting her lip, and French observed her for a moment. He remembered the foreign vivacity and dash, the wilful grace of her youth, and marvelled at her stiffened, pretentious air, her loss of charm. Instinctively the saint in him knew from the mere look of her that she had been feeding herself on egotisms and falsehoods, and his heart hardened. Daphne resumed: "If Captain Boyson has given you an account of our interview, Mr. French, it was probably a one-sided one. However, that is _not_ the point. He _did_ distress me very much by his account, which I gather came from you--of--of Roger, and although, of course, it is a very awkward matter for me to move in, I still felt impelled for old times' sake to come over and see whether I could not help you--and his other friends--and, of course, his mother----" "His mother is out of the question," interrupted French. "She is, I am sorry to say, a helpless invalid." "Is it really as bad as that? I hoped for better news. Then I apply to you--to you chiefly. Is there anything that I could do to assist you, or others, to----" "To save him?" French put in the words as she hesitated. Daphne was silent.