"I shall guard it as the most precious of secrets…I have an idea that we shall meet here again."

She shook her head doubtfully. "It's a fearful place. I'm not sure that we have either of us done right to come here at all."

"Do you feel a worse woman for having spent these few minutes with me?"

"Oh, no-no!…Not worse, but, far, far better! I feel…it's impossible to describe…"

"Try!"

"I feel…just as if I'd had a spiritual lesson… It's foolish…"

"Let me interpret for you. Isn't it your feeling that during the short time we have spent here together we have been enabled temporarily to drop the mask of convention, and talk to each other more humanly and truthfully? Isn't this what you feel?"

"Yes, I think it is…The air here seems different. It's nobler, and there's a sort of music in it…If it hadn't been for this strange meeting, we should never have known each other so well. Perhaps not at all."

"Then we have done right to come here."

Isbel got up, and stared walking about restlessly. Judge sat where he was, with a face of stone. Presently she stopped short in front of him, and demanded with quiet suddenness:

"What can be waiting for us in that other room?"

"We must find out-but not now. I must go now."

"But haven't you formed a guess?"

"I have somehow received the impression that this room and the left-hand one are merely lobbies to that other. If we are to experience anything, it will be there. All this is only preliminary."

"I think so, too," said Isbel. "But I should never find the courage to enter that room alone."

"We'll go together. The same fortune which has brought us face to face here this afternoon will provide us with an opportunity."

He got to his feet.

"So now we separate, in order to meet again?" asked Isbel.

"As strangers, unfortunately."

"No." She spoke with quiet dignity. "Hearts which have once met can never be strangers. I am sure we shall know each other."

They moved towards the door, and, as they did so, the same idea occurred for the first time to both.

"Surely we couldn't both have come up the same flight of stairs?" asked Isbel.

"I know of only one way up. We must have done."

"But I came up from the hall, and I only climbed to the height of one storey."

"We have to recognise, I fear, that physical properties here are different. I have plagued my head sufficiently over all that. I'm not disposed to worry about it any longer…We will go down together, but I think we shall lose sight of each other on the stairs."

They passed through the door, into the ante-room.

"Couldn't we put it to the test, by my taking your arm?" queried Isbel.

"Better not play with unknown forces, I think."

He bowed, and stood aside to allow her to precede him down the staircase.

Half-way down, she turned her head to see if he were still there following, but he had disappeared.

Chapter X BLANCHE SPEAKS OUT

The hall was as she had left it, and her friends apparently had not yet returned. Her head was bewildered; she was unable at first to realise what had happened to her. She knew that a staircase had appeared to her, that she had climbed it some little time ago, and that it was only this minute that she had come down again. But the stairs had vanished, and her memory concerning the adventure was an utter blank. Pressing her hand to her hot forehead, she stared earnestly at the wall, in the effort to concentrate her will on that one task of recollection; but it was quite useless-the experience, whatever it was, had grazed her mind as lightly as a dream…Yet it had now happened to her twice, and it had happened to Mr. Jude as well, in years gone by…

She made up her mind to talk to that man on the subject. He was the only one to whom she could talk about it, and it was impossible to go on any longer hugging this awful secret in solitude…That would be the best. He might be angry at Marshall 's breach of confidence, but perhaps it would be possible to contrive that that should not come out. She need not decide now. When she got home she would think about it all out carefully, weighing the affair in all its bearings…

Her watch told her that it was close upon half-past three. It was evident that she had been somewhere all that time…Then suddenly she realized the absence of her scarf. Uttering an exclamation of annoyance, she quickly cast her eyes around for the missing article, but it was nowhere visible in the hall, and she had not been in any other part of the house. She concluded that she must have dropped it out of doors-perhaps where they had picnicked in that field. She did not value the scarf highly, but it was vexing to lose it so stupidly. It would not take long to run there and back before the others came downstairs again.

Passing out of the hall-door, she retraced their route to the place where they had lunched, keeping a sharp watch for the bright, silken fabric, which ought to catch the eye quickly enough. She covered the whole distance, only stopping short at the little stream, but failed to see it anywhere. Then, recollecting that Blanche might possibly have picked it up and taken charge of it, she returned more quietly to the house.

The little distraction had at least one good result, it enabled her for a few minutes to forget that other thing, thereby permitting her nerves to tranquillise themselves, and in consequence she was now in a position to meet her friends again with tolerable coolness. On re-entering the hall she found them waiting for her; they seemed to have just come down.

Even before anyone spoke, Isbel was conscious of a changed atmosphere. An air of constraint hung over the little party, and for a moment she had a guilty feeling that this embarrassment was in some way connected with herself. No one remembered to inquire after the condition of her head.

Blanche addressed her with a cold smile: "We seem to be playing at hide-and-seek this afternoon. First Mr. Judge loses himself, and then you."

"I'm exceedingly sorry. I missed my scarf, and went outside to look for it. You haven't picked it up by any chance?"

"No."

"It doesn't matter, but it's gone."

"You haven't been upstairs, have you?"

"No-oh, no. Why?"

"You needn't look so startled-I only meant you had it round your neck when we went up. It was the last thing I saw."

"Surely not!" said Isbel, much puzzled.

"Were you in the hall all the time, up to the moment you missed it?"

"Yes."

Blanche shrugged her shoulders, and turned away.

"Mrs. Stokes must be mistaken, and you must have dropped it out of doors," suggested Judge. "I'll tell Priday to institute a thorough search for it. When found, I'll send it on."

"Thank you very much!"

Isbel kept stealing perplexed glances at Judge, and each time she did so she surprised him in the act of hastily averting his eyes from her. She could not imagine why they were regarding each other with such furtive interest. As far as she knew, nothing had changed in their relations since they had last spoken together, yet now it seemed as if they had a great deal to say to each other which they had somehow failed to discover at the time. She wondered how she could get to speak to him again.

"How did Mr. Judge contrive to get lost, then?" she inquired of Roger, who appeared the most approachable of the trio.

"With perfect ease. Blanche and I were wandering about the premises, like Adam and Eve turned out of Eden, for the space of half an hour."

"I can only repeat my apologies," said Judge rather stiffly. "I admit it was a most unpardonable breach of courtesy."

Isbel looked from one to another. "How did it come about, then?"

"The explanation is not very much to my credit, Miss Loment, but I fear I have no right to stand on dignity. We had come downstairs from the top storey, after visiting the East Room, and were about to enter the drawing-room, when I suddenly remembered that I had omitted to lock that other room again-which is to break my own rule. Mrs. Stokes was kind enough to allow me a couple of minutes' leave of absence to attend to the business…"