"No. I thought I hated him. Later, when I knew I loved him, I even lied to him and told him I didn't love him. I can't forgive myself that. But then, when I did _that_ thing, I only knew what I've told you." Stainton turned away. She saw him make an effort to straighten himself, but his shoulders bent and his head drooped. He was shuffling toward the door. Nevertheless, Muriel was now ruthlessly honest. "But I love him now," she said. "Yes," said Stainton. His voice was dull. "When you married me," said Muriel, "I knew nothing--nothing. I was no more fit to be your wife than you, because you knew so much and so little, were fit to be my husband." Stainton half turned. "And he?" Jim asked. "He loves me: you only liked having me." He turned slowly away again. She thought that she heard him whisper: "No child!" "Oh, yes," she said. "I have lost everything else; but I have lost everything but a child. I only wish I could lose that, but I have a baby, a little dead baby. It will never leave me: it's the little ghost-baby of the woman I never had a chance to be." He said nothing. He went down to the dining-room, merely for want of going somewhere away from her. He sat there in the darkness until, an hour later, he heard her shut and bolt the bedroom door. He took a candle in his shaking hand and studied in a mirror his gaunt grey face. One of the twin fears that had dominated his earlier life was still with him. She was right; he was growing old. XX HUSBAND AND LOVER At eight o'clock in the morning, when the warm sun beat upon the sea and flooded the rooms of the villa, Stainton, still clad in his travelling clothes, returned to the drawing-room and rang the bell for the maid. "Go to Mrs. Stainton's room," he said to the maid, who spoke more or less English, "and tell her that, as soon as she is ready to see me, I----" "But, monsieur----" "You may add that I won't keep her fifteen minutes." "But, monsieur, it is since an hour madame is gone out." "Gone out?" Why had she gone so early and so silently? Had she not tried to conceal her exit, he would have heard her. The natural suspicion flashed through Stainton's mind. "Why didn't you tell me this before?" "Madame say you are not to be disturbed." "Hum. I see. Did she leave any message?" "But, yes; she leave this note here. She say the note to be given to monsieur only when monsieur demanded her whereabout." Stainton took the envelope that the girl handed to him and, as the maid left the room, opened it. He was reading it through for the twentieth time when the domestic reappeared. "A gentleman to see monsieur," she said. "What gentleman?" asked Stainton, though he guessed the answer to his question. The maid presented a card. "Show Captain von Klausen up here," said Jim. A moment later, husband and lover stood alone together. "Good-morning," said Stainton. He held out his hand, and von Klausen, after a swift hesitation, took it.