"
"I took his rooms?" Philippa repeated, with a sudden little catch
at her heart.
"Some one from here rang up, didn't they?" Sir Henry went on
carelessly. "I gathered that we were introducing him at the hotel."
"Where did you hear that?" she demanded.
He shrugged his shoulders, but avoided answering the question.
"I have no doubt," he continued, "that the whole subject of Mr.
Hamar Lessingham is scarcely worth discussing. Yet he does seem to
have arrived here under a little halo of coincidence."
"I am afraid I have scarcely appreciated that," Philippa remarked;
"in fact, his coming here has seemed to me the most ordinary thing
in the world. After all, although one scarcely remembers that since
the war, this is a health resort, and the man has been ill."
"Quite right," Sir Henry agreed. "You are not going to bed, dear?"
Philippa had folded up her work. She stood for a moment upon the
hearth-rug. The little hardness which had tightened her mouth had
disappeared, her eyes had softened.
"May I say just one word more," she begged, "about our previous--our
only serious subject of conversation? I have tried my best since we
were married, Henry, to make you happy."
"You know quite well," he assured her, "that you have succeeded."
"Grant me one favour, then," she pleaded. "Give up your fishing
expedition to-morrow, go back to London by the first train and let
me write to Lord Rayton.
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