CONTENTS

CHAPTER
[1.][MISS INGATE, AND THE YACHT]
[2.][THE THIEF’S PLAN WRECKED]
[3.][THE LEGACY]
[4.][MR. FOULGER]
[5.][THE DEAD HAND]
[6.][THE YOUNG WIDOW]
[7.][THE CIGARETTE GIRL]
[8.][EXPLOITATION OF WIDOWHOOD]
[9.][LIFE IN PARIS]
[10.][FANCY DRESS]
[11.][A POLITICAL REFUGEE]
[12.][WIDOWHOOD IN THE STUDIO]
[13.][THE SWOON]
[14.][MISS INGATE POINTS OUT THE DOOR]
[15.][THE RIGHT BANK]
[16.][ROBES]
[17.][SOIRÉE]
[18.][A DECISION]
[19.][THE BOUDOIR]
[20.][PAGET GARDENS]
[21.][JANE]
[22.][THE DETECTIVE]
[23.][THE BLUE CITY]
[24.][THE SPATTS]
[25.][THE MUTE]
[26.][NOCTURNE]
[27.][IN THE GARDEN]
[28.][ENCOUNTER]
[29.][FLIGHT]
[30.][ARIADNE]
[31.][THE NOSTRUM]
[32.][BY THE BINNACLE]
[33.][AGUILAR’S DOUBLE LIFE]
[34.][THE TANK-ROOM]
[35.][THE THIRD SORT OF WOMAN]
[36.][IN THE DINGHY]
[37.][AFLOAT]
[38.][IN THE UNIVERSE]
[39.][THE IMMINENT DRIVE]
[40.][GENIUS AT BAY]
[41.][FINANCIAL NEWS]
[42.][INTERVAL]
[43.][ENTR’ACTE]
[44.][END OF THE CONCERT]
[45.][STRANGE RESULT OF A QUARREL]
[46.][AN EPILOGUE]

CHAPTER I

MISS INGATE, AND THE YACHT

Audrey had just closed the safe in her father’s study when she was startled by a slight noise. She turned like a defensive animal to face danger. It had indeed occurred to her that she was rather like an animal in captivity, and she found a bitter pleasure in the idea, though it was not at all original.

“And Flank Hall is my Zoo!” she had said. (Not that she had ever seen the Zoological Gardens or visited London.)

She was lithe; she moved with charm. Her short, plain blue serge walking-frock disclosed the form of her limbs and left them free, and it made her look younger even than she was. Its simplicity suited her gestures and took grace from them. But she wore the old thing without the least interest in it—almost unconsciously. She had none of the preoccupations caused by the paraphernalia of existence. She scarcely knew what it was to own. She was aware only of her body and her soul. Beyond these her possessions were so few, so mean, so unimportant, that she might have carried them to the grave and into heaven without protest from the authorities earthly or celestial.

The slight noise was due to the door of the study, which great age had distorted and bereft of sense, and, in fact, almost unhinged. It unlatched itself, paused, and then calmly but firmly swung wide open. When it could swing no farther it shook, vibrating into repose.

Audrey condemned the door for a senile lunatic, and herself for a poltroon. She became defiant of peril, until the sound of a step on the stair beyond the door threw her back into alarm. But when the figure of Miss Ingate appeared in the doorway she was definitely reassured, to the point of disdain. All her facial expression said: “It’s only Miss Ingate.”