“He came into my dressing-room and sat and talked. He looked about from one thing to another and pretended to admire it all and congratulated me. But though he did not sneer at what he saw, his eyes were sneering at me. He talked about you. He said that you were a very clever woman. I don't know how he manages to imply that a very clever woman is something cunning and debased--but it means that when he says it. It seems to insinuate things which make one grow hot all over.” She put out a hand and caught one of Betty's. “Betty, Betty,” she implored. “Don't make him angry. Don't.” “I am not going to begin by making him angry,” Betty said. “And I do not think he will try to make me angry--at first.” “No, he will not,” cried Rosalie. “And--and you remember what I told you when first we talked about him?” “And do you remember,” was Betty's answer, “what I said to you when I first met you in the park? If we were to cable to New York this moment, we could receive an answer in a few hours.” “He would not let us do it,” said Rosy. “He would stop us in some way--as he stopped my letters to mother--as he stopped me when I tried to run away. Oh, Betty, I know him and you do not.” “I shall know him better every day. That is what I must do. I must learn to know him. He said something more to you than you have told me, Rosy. What was it?” “He waited until Detcham left me,” Lady Anstruthers confessed, more than half reluctantly. “And then he got up to go away, and stood with his hands resting on the chairback, and spoke to me in a low, queer voice. He said, 'Don't try to play any tricks on me, my good girl--and don't let your sister try to play any. You would both have reason to regret it.'” She was a half-hypnotised thing, and Betty, watching her with curious but tender eyes, recognised the abnormality. “Ah, if I am a clever woman,” she said, “he is a clever man. He is beginning to see that his power is slipping away. That was what G. Selden would call 'bluff.'” CHAPTER XXXI NO, SHE WOULD NOT Sir Nigel did not invite Rosalie to accompany them, when the next morning, after breakfast, he reminded Betty of his suggestion of the night before, that she should walk over the place with him, and show him what had been done. He preferred to make his study of his sister-in-law undisturbed.