Come in." Barker followed her in mechanically, and she closed the door.

"Now, sit down," she said gayly, "and tell me how you knew we were here, and what you mean by surprising us at this hour." Barker's ready color always rose on meeting Mrs.Horncastle, for whom he entertained a respectful admiration, not without some fear of her worldly superiority.

He flushed, bowed, and stared somewhat blankly around the room, at the familiar walls, at the chair from which Mrs.
Horncastle had just risen, and finally at his wife's glove, which Mrs.
Horncastle had a moment before ostentatiously thrown on the table.
Seeing which she pounced upon it with assumed archness, and pretended to conceal it.
"I had no idea my wife was here," he said at last, "and I was quite surprised when the man told me, for she had not written to me about it." As his face was brightening, she for the first time noticed that his frank gray eyes had an abstracted look, and there was a faint line of contraction on his youthful forehead.

"Still less," he added, "did I look for the pleasure of meeting you.

For I only came here to inquire about my old partner, Demorest, who arrived from Europe a few days ago, and who should have reached Hymettus early this afternoon.