“You will think it strange—­” she began.  “You will think—­” Then she stopped.

There was a pause, as though she waited for some help, but Loder remained mute.  In difficulty a silent tongue and a cool head are usually man’s best weapons.

His silence was disconcerting.  He heard her stir again.

“You will think it strange—­” she began once more.  Then quite suddenly she checked and controlled her voice.  “You must forgive me for what I am going to say,” she added, in a completely different tone, “but crystal-gazing is such an illusive thing.  Directly you put your hands upon the table I felt that there would be no result; but I wouldn’t admit the defeat.  Women are such keen anglers that they can never acknowledge that any fish, however big, has slipped the hook.”  She laughed softly.

At the soand of the laugh Loder shifted his position for the first time.  He could not have told why, but it struck him with a slight sense of confusion.  A precipitate wish to rise and pass through the doorway into the wider spaces of the conservatory came to him, though he made no attempt to act upon it.  He knew that, for some inexplicable reason, this woman behind the screen had lied to him—­in the controlling of her speech, in her charge of voice.  There had been one moment in which an impulse or an emotion had almost found voice; then training, instinct, or it might have been diplomacy, had conquered, and the moment had passed.  There was a riddle in the very atmosphere of the place—­and he abominated riddles.

But Lady Astrupp was absorbed in her own concerns.  Again she changed her position; and to Loder, listening attentively, it seemed that she leaned forward and examined his hands afresh.  The sensation was so acute that he withdrew them involuntarily.

Again there was a confused rustle; the crystal ball rolled from the table, and the seer laughed quickly.  Obeying a strenuous impulse, Loder rose.

He had no definite notion of what he expected or what he must avoid.  He was only conscious that the pavilion, with its silk draperies, its scent of musk, and its intolerable secrecy, was no longer endurable.  He felt cramped and confused in mind and muscle.  He stood for a second to straighten his limbs; then he turned, and, moving directly forward, passed through the portiere.

After the dimness of the pavilion the conservatory seemed comparatively bright; but without waiting to grow accustomed to the altered light he moved onward with deliberate haste.  The long, green alley, was speedily traversed; in his eyes it no longer possessed greenness, no longer suggested freshness or repose.  It was simply a means to the end upon which his mind was set.

As he passed up the flight of steps he drew his rings from his pocket and slipped them on again.  Then he stepped into the glare of the thronged corridor.

Some one hailed him as be passed through the crowd, but with Chilcote’s most absorbed manner he hurried on.  Through the door of the supper-room he caught sight of Blessington and Eve, and then for the first time his expression changed, and he turned directly towards them.