Athalie

Winifred had grown stout, which, on a slim, small-boned woman is

quickly apparent; and, to Clive, her sleepy, uncertain grey eyes

seemed even nearer together than he remembered them.

She was seated in the yellow and white living-room of her apartment at

the Regina, still holding the card he had sent up; and she made no

movement to rise when her maid announced him and ushered him in, or to

greet him at all except with a slight nod and a slighter gesture

indicating a chair across the room.

He said: "I did not know until this morning that you were in this

country."

"Was it necessary to inform you?"

"No, not necessary," he said, "unless you have come to some definite

decision concerning our future relations."

Her eyes seemed to grow sleepier and nearer together than ever.

"Why," he asked, wearily, "have you employed an agency to have me

followed?"

She lifted her drooping lids and finely pencilled brows. "Have you

been followed?"

"At intervals, as you know. Would you mind saying why? Because you

have always been welcome to divorce."

She sat silent, slowly tearing into tiny squares the card he had sent

up. Presently, as at an afterthought, she collected all the fragments

and placed them in a heap on the table beside her.

"Well?" she inquired, glancing up at him. "Is that all you have to

say?"

"I don't know what to say until you tell me why you have had me

followed and why you yourself are here."

Her gaze remained fixed on the heap of little pasteboard squares which

she shifted across the polished table-top from one position to

another. She said: "The case against you was complete enough before last night. I fancy

even you will admit that."

"You are wrong," he replied wearily. "Somehow or other I believe you

know that you are wrong. But I suppose a jury might not think so."

"Would you care to tell a jury that this trance-medium is not your

mistress?"

"I should not care to defend her on such a charge before a jury or

before anybody. There are various ways of damning a woman; and to

defend her from that accusation is one of them."

"And another way?"

"To admit the charge. Either ruin her in the eyes of the truly

virtuous."

"What do you expect to do about it then? Keep silent?"

"That is still a third way of destroying a woman."