"Ah, Deedes," he exclaimed in a low voice, with a slight smile upon his colourless, wizened face. "In the enemy's camp--eh?" "Yes, my wife wished to come," I explained. "Of course. Women like this sort of thing. I have never met her. You must introduce her presently." "She will esteem it an honour," I said, adding, "She is over there in a cream dress, dancing with Verblioudovitch." He glanced in their direction, and started perceptibly. For some moments his keen eyes followed her. Then I noticed that his grey brows contracted, and his usually expressionless face wore a strange, ominous look such as I had never before detected upon it. "Is that your wife?" he asked huskily, turning and eyeing me curiously. "Yes." "Was it she who alleged that your friend Ogle was the victim of foul play?" he inquired with emphasis, in a voice that betrayed dismay. "It was," I replied. The Foreign Minister sighed. As he again turned his eyes upon the pair at that moment gliding down the room to the strains of the latest fashionable refrain his brow darkened, and his teeth were firmly set. A silence fell between us. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. IN KENSINGTON GARDENS. On our return home in the early hours, Ella sat before the fire in her cosy boudoir, her opera-cape still about her shoulders, resting her tired head upon a cushion, and staring thoughtfully into the dying embers, while I lounged near, smoking a final cigarette. Times out of number I tried to account for the Earl's agitation when he had encountered her. It was evident they were not strangers, although when I had introduced them he treated her with studied courtesy. There were, I remembered, many suspicious incidents connected with her as yet unexplained, nevertheless, from that memorable evening when Dudley and I had dined at "The Nook" and we had become reconciled, I had never doubted that she loved me. Perhaps I had been foolish, I told myself. I ought to have obtained full explanation of the several circumstances that had caused me such uneasiness before marriage, yet I had abandoned all active effort to ascertain the truth, because of the intensity of my passion. Her beauty had captivated me; her voice held me spellbound, and because I loved her I could not bring myself to suspect her. For a long time she sat, reflecting gravely upon the events of the evening; then, shivering slightly, rose and went to her room, leaving me alone to ponder over her sudden seriousness.