"Who's there?" she asked without turning her head. Evidently she thought somebody had knocked, and Ryder stood at such an angle that she could not easily see him in the mirror. She had removed her stage costume and sat in her petticoat and with frankly-bared shoulders and arms. Ryder breathed heavily; the sight of her satin skin and beautifully molded neck and arms almost staggered him. He remembered how Ruth had looked for the single moment he had seen her in similar undress in their bedroom at the Pinewood Inn. "Is that you, Mr. Marks?" cried Miss Mont. "Wait a moment." She rose swiftly, half turning, and Ryder found his voice. "It is not Marks, Ruth; nor yet your Mr. White. It is I." She uttered a little scream, but it was not a cry of recognition. As she swung fully around to face him she exclaimed: "How dare you come in here? Who are you?" Then she really saw his strained and passion-wrung features and cried in startled amazement: "Mr. Ryder! I thought I saw you out front." "Yes. And now I'm here," said Ryder bitterly. "Is there anything so astonishing in that? Where else should I be? A man can scarcely be said to intrude when he enters his wife's dressing-room." "You--you---- What do you mean?" she gasped, shrinking away from his vicinity. She quickly snatched up the nearest garment and flung it about her shoulders. "This is cruel of you, Mr. Ryder. Do leave me until I dress." "Pah! Why so prudish? Am I not your husband?" "Husband? What do you say? Is the man mad?" murmured the woman. "I--I am not your wife, Mr. Ryder." "And that may be true, too," he agreed, wetting his lips before he could speak. The fires of an inward fever seemed burning him up. "That may be true," he pursued. "So much the worse for you then, Ruth. For by the living God! if you have tricked me in that, too, you shall suffer for it as a bigamist." "Tricked you?" cried she, with sudden heat, and standing more erect before the angry man. "I did not trick you. If either of us deserves the accusation of trickster it is you. But a woman is helpless if a man makes a fool of her. Had you been the gentleman I thought you, however, you would have told me you had changed your mind and found that the affection you declared you had for me was merely a passing fancy." "What's that?" he shouted. "Don't taunt me that way, woman! I--who loved you devotedly, who would do anything for you, who showed you my heart laid bare! And you dare accuse me of fickleness? "A dozen suspicious acts of yours I overlooked while we were at the hotel together. I refused to believe my _wife_ guilty of any thought or act that might suggest infidelity." She gazed at him in amazement. "What are you talking about? You are mad, man!"