"But why did he not tell me?" asked Claudia, growing crimson with anger. "Well, my dear"--Lady Wyke shrugged her elegant shoulders--"it might be that he hoped to gain time and think matters over. Perhaps he would have divorced me, although without cause he could not have done so. Perhaps he might have murdered me." "I think he has behaved very badly!" cried the girl, with great indignation. "All men behave badly, Miss Lemby; they can't help themselves. But as Sir Hector is dead, suppose we say no more about the matter. After all"--she raised her glasses--"you don't look very broken-hearted." "I am not," Claudia assured her. "I never loved your husband." "Indeed! Then the title and the money attracted you." "No. I was worried by my father into the position." "I see. You love another." "Yes." Claudia's eyes, from habit, wandered to a side table, on which stood a silver frame containing the photograph of Edwin. With the swiftness and grace of a swallow Lady Wyke swooped to the other end of the room and took up the photograph. Then her face changed, and, a variety of emotions displayed themselves rapidly. Love, jealousy, fear, astonishment, and suspicion were all written plainly for Claudia to see. "Why, it's him!" "It is Mr. Edwin Craver, to whom I am engaged." "That's a lie!" cried Lady Wyke, and threw down the photograph to face The girl with a flushed face and hard eyes. "Seeing that you do not know Mr. Craver, I do not see why you should speak in that way," was Claudia's dignified reply. "I do know him. I say that the photograph is one of 'Him.' I call him that to myself, although until now I never heard his name," and she clenched her hands so tightly that one glove split. The more angry Lady Wyke grew the cooler Claudia became, she had received two great shocks; one was when Lady Wyke announced who she was, and the other on hearing about the recognition of the photo. Danger was in the air and it was Claudia's nature to face danger calmly. "Where did you meet him?" she asked. "Oh, my dear," Lady Wyke was now quite her self-possessed self, "it is quite a romance. I went to a motor-factory to buy a car, and there I saw Mr. Craver, although I did not know his name, as I never asked it. It was another man who attended to me, and I only saw Mr. Craver at a distance. But he was so very handsome that I admired him exceedingly. Although I am not so young as you are, Miss Lemby, I have the heart and fresh feelings of a girl. After I left the factory I thought a great deal about Mr. Craver." "Did you indeed?" said. Claudia, hardly relishing this frank confession. "Now you are jealous. Well, I don't wonder at it. If I was engaged to such a splendid young lover I should be jealous of everyone who looked at him. However, I was beginning to forget him when I went to Hendon to see the flying, and there saw Mr. Craver in an aeroplane." "You never did," said Claudia, excitedly. "Edwin does not go in for aviation."