It was Meriel's nature to believe in her fellow creatures, and she told herself that of course it meant love. What else could it be? It was imagination only which had read into that glance something cold and cruel, a triumph of possession more malignant than tender. When Claudia rose to escort her friend to her room, there came the first note of discord, for her husband rose too, and as she would have passed by stretched out one great hand to detain her, while with the other he held her chin, turning her face so that the pink rash was deliberately exposed to his gaze. A moment before it had been hardly noticeable, but at that touch the pink flush faded from Claudia's cheek, leaving her so pallid that the disfigurement was increased by contrast. "Still there, I notice!" he said shortly, and then with a certain brutality of emphasis: "Get rid of that!" he cried deeply. "Get rid of it. _And quickly_. Do you hear?" "Yes, John," Claudia said, and there was a breathless catch in her voice, as though his words filled her with fear. Meriel marvelled still more! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Later on that evening, Meriel repaired to her friend's room to indulge in one of those hair-brushing _tete-a-tetes_ dear to the feminine soul. "Well, Claudia," she began, a touch of something approaching envy sounding in her voice, "you at least have gained what you wished for! You plumped for money, and you have more than you can spend. Do you find the experience as satisfactory as you expected?" Claudia smiled, and leaned back luxuriously against her cushions. "Oh, _quite_!" she cried emphatically. "After two years' experience, I am still of the opinion that it is the only thing that matters. It's wonderful what money can do, Meriel; it's magical! Good people talk of greater gifts that you may get if you are good and self-denying, and have a dull time, but they are all in the clouds, and money is so delightfully, so tangibly real!" She glanced round the beautiful room, then down to the little ringed hand stretched out to the fire; she moved her fingers to and fro, so that the flames might wake the sparkle of gems, and heaved a sigh of luxurious content. "I used to long for things that I could not have; now I never need to long, for they are mine as soon as I think of them! How can one help being happy, when one has everything one wants?" "There are some things that money cannot buy." Once more Meriel could not resist echoing the truism of centuries, but Claudia shook her head with laughing contradiction. "Rubbish! Don't you believe it! Anyway, money can buy such good imitations that you can't tell them from real! It can do more than that. It--" She paused, with a sudden intake of breath, and her voice sank to a deeper note: "_It can cover things up_!"