Clodagh stepped to her side and laid her hand imperatively on her arm. "Hush!" she whispered. "Go back at once and tell Walter that I'm--that I'm asleep. Tell him that Simonetta said I was better and fell asleep. Tell him anything you can think of that will make him happy and get him away. He must be got away. I can't see him. Do you understand, Nance? He must be got away." For one surprised moment Nance looked at her sister; then conquering her curiosity, she turned quietly and moved to the door. "All right, darling!" she said reassuringly; "I'll send him away happy." Clodagh put her hand across her eyes. "Thank God!" she said. "If you had asked me one more question I couldn't have borne it. Send him away, and then come back." In silence Nance left the room. Five minutes passed--ten minutes; then Clodagh's straining ears caught the closing of the outer door, and her hand dropped to her side in a gesture of excessive relief. "Thank God!" she said again. When Nance re-entered, she was still standing in the middle of the room, her face white and tear-stained, her figure braced. "Nance," she said, almost before the door had closed upon her sister, "I am going to tell you things I have never told you before. I feel I shall go mad to-night, if I don't tell some one. Don't ask me any questions. Just listen and--if you can--love me!" Nance paused just inside the door. Her own face looked pale above the shimmering blue and silver of her evening dress; her dark blue eyes were full of a peculiarly tender light. "I don't love you, Clo," she said below her breath. "I adore you. Tell me whatever you like." Clodagh threw out her hands despairingly. "I'm not worth love like that," she cried. "You'll know it when I've finished. Do you remember long ago, Nance, when James and I went to Venice? Do you remember my letters from Venice?" Nance showed no surprise at the sudden irrelevant questions. "All of them," she answered--"I have them all." "Then you remember how I met Frances Hope and Val Serracauld--and Lord Deerehurst?" "I remember." "I was very much alone at that time, Nance. James was only a shadow in my life; and they--they seemed like sunshine, and I wanted the sunshine. I have always been like a child, turning to bright tawdry things." "Clo! you're upset to-night!--you're ill!"