_Disarming Suspicion_ From the house across the street Caroline Smith slipped out upon the pavement and glanced warily about her.

The street was empty, quieter and more villagelike than ever, yet she knew perfectly well that John Mark had not allowed her to be gone so long without keeping watch over her.
Somewhere from the blank faces of those houses across the street his spies kept guard over her movements.

Here she glanced sharply over her shoulder, and it seemed to her that a shadow flitted into the door of a basement, farther up the street.
At that she fled and did not stop running until she was at the door of the house of Mark.

Since all was quiet, up and down the street, she paused again, her hand upon the knob.

To enter meant to step back into the life which she hated.