"What an old, old woman I look," she muttered, peering into the glass. "Grey hairs in the black; wrinkles in the smooth face. I wonder if he will recognise me. Surely not! Twenty years make a great difference. I will see him now in another two hours. He never dreams I am under the same roof, unless Dombrain----" She started, drew herself up to her full height, and clenched her hands. "Dombrain!" she said again. "Can he have revealed anything to Rupert? I know he hates me, and would do me an injury if he dared. But he cannot. No! I hold his secret; while I do that mine is safe with him. Oh! how ill I feel, but I must not faint, I must not quail. I must be brave--brave for my child's sake." She bathed her face in cold water, took a small liqueur glass of brandy, which she produced from the dressing-bag, and then went to lie down for a time before facing her husband. "To-night," she murmured, as her head sank on the pillows. "To-night, Rupert Pethram, we measure swords. Let us see who will win. You or I!" CHAPTER XVIII. FACE TO FACE. "Oh, I was the husband and you were the wife; We met, and we married, and parted. Our meeting was happy, our marriage was strife: Our parting left each broken-hearted. Our hearts are now cured of their anguish and shame; We've learned each our lesson of sorrow; 'Tis folly to need the same lesson again, And so I will bid you 'good-morrow.'" Sir Rupert's study, which was one of the most comfortable apartments in the house, was placed in the east angle of the building, so that two of the walls were formed by the outside of the house. It was lighted by four French windows, two of which were generally open in fine weather, looking out on to the terrace. It was furnished in a heavy, stately fashion, with cumbersome oaken furniture, upholstered in green morocco, and the walls, hung with velvety dark-green paper, were surrounded with low oaken bookcases, the height of a man, filled with well-selected volumes. On top of these cases were placed choice specimens of ceramic art, consisting of red Egyptian water-jars, delicate figures in Dresden china, and huge bowls of porcelain, bizarre with red and blue dragons. Interspersed with these, quaint effigies of squat Hindoo idols, grotesque bronze gods from Japan, and hideous fetishes from Central Africa.