do not defend these proceedings for divorce, he will continue your allowance. If you defend them, he will not."
"That is, he bribes me not to put in a defence," said Lucia.
"You are at liberty to put it any way you choose," said Mr. Shapstone.
That was the first real touch of shame, of humiliation, that Lucia had felt. It was intolerable that this man, who had been her guest, who was one of the crowd whom she had chosen to honour, should inflict this on her. And she had to answer him. He, too, would put his own interpretation on the "disdainful silence."
"I am not proposing to defend the case," she said.
Mr. Shapstone rose at once.
"Thank you, that is all," he said. "Perhaps, if you would give me the shortest possible statement of that on paper, it would be satisfactory to my client. Pray send it at your leisure."
The next day passed without external incident. Lucia wrote the short statement, sent it by hand, and received a formal receipt. All these days she had received no letters; probably they had all been forwarded to the yacht at Marseilles, for Edgar always made the most careful schedule of the destinations to which they should be sent. But on Wednesday morning there was brought up to her with her early tea a letter in a hand she knew well. It was from Maud.
"Lucia, I think I had better see you. There are things that must be said or written from me to you, and I don't think I could write them. I should not propose an interview which must prove so painful if it were not that I think it necessary. I could come any time to-morrow that you may appoint. I will not write more now except just to say that my heart bleeds and aches for you. Oh, Lucia, Lucia, what misery"
And then apparently Maud's pen could do no more, and she had left it unsigned.
Lucia had appointed eleven the following morning, but long before that hour she was pacing up and down her room in a suspense that was becoming unbearable. She felt sure that Charlie had seen his wife, and yet Charlie had not seen her. She felt something had been arranged, and that Maud was going to tell her of it, that Charlie acquiesced in this arrangement whatever it was. But what in God's name could it be that kept
