Madison smiled with grave whimsicality.

"To call me a gentleman and repose a trust."

She stepped back again, uncertainly.

"I do not know what you are talking about," she said in a strained way. "And you are talking very strangely."

"Yes," he said. "Everything is strange to-night. It is like a new world, and—and I have not found my way—yet."

She drew back still further.

"Are you mad?" she whispered.

"No," he answered. "Not now—that Is past."

She looked at him for a little time; and, her hands joined before her, her fingers locked and interlocked nervously.

"And—and Thornton?" she asked, at last.