A light footfall interrupted his meditations, and looking up, he saw, standing before him, half screened by the bushes which she was holding back, to give her free access to the main path which he was pursuing, the graceful figure and sad, sweet face of Madame Darcy. A shade of annoyance passed over his brow as he remembered the scene of the night before, and his companion was quick to interpret his mood. "Ah, Mr. Stanley," she said, "you've seen my husband." "Yes," he admitted. "He came up to the Hall last night." "I hope he didn't make himself a nuisance," she said. "Well, I'm afraid he did rather," he returned, and added, "but it's nothing," for he felt that it would be impossible for him to tell her what had really occurred. "I'm so sorry," she cried. "I only bring you trouble." "No, indeed," he hastened to assure her, "far from it. These little talks with you are a positive rest and refreshment to me. I hate this playing the spy." "I suppose it won't do for me to ask how you're progressing, and what you've found out?" "I've found out that I've made an awful fool of myself," he said. "Mr. Riddle----" "I could have told you who Mr. Riddle was yesterday," she said. The Secretary shrugged his shoulders. "I'm afraid that would have been of little use." "Be very careful," she warned him. "There are others besides Mr. Riddle whom you have to look out for." Could it be possible, he asked himself, that she suspected her husband? Aloud, he said: "Whom do you mean?" She shrugged her shoulders. "It's not for me to belie my own sex," she retorted, "but----" "You mean there is a woman in the case?" She nodded. The Secretary drew himself up very stiffly. "It's an impossibility that we will not discuss," he said. "Your prejudices mislead you." Yet, in spite of his apparent calmness, he was greatly disturbed, for this was the second time that day that doubt had been cast upon Miss Fitzgerald. CHAPTER XXI THE RESOURCES OF DIPLOMACY Determined to drive these unjust suspicions from his mind, the Secretary turned the conversation into other channels, and spent a most delightful hour in the park with Madame Darcy, in which they came to understand each other marvellously well. Prompted by that subtle instinct which invariably suggests to the feminine mind the proper course with a man she cares to impress, she relegated her own woes to the uncertain future, and led the conversation into reminiscences of their common country. So time fled by unnoticed, till Stanley had arrived at the dangerous point of wondering why fate had not ordained his life differently before she had married that brute, or he had--no, no, he did not mean that! He was a very lucky dog, and Belle was much too good for him--and, in short, he must go back to the Hall.