The Profiteers

ppearance. The great bell which he pealed seemed to ring through empty spaces. His footsteps echoed strangely in the lofty white sto

ad if you will come to t

rved there. If mons

he shielded windows of which he caught glimpses of green trees. The room was like a little fairy chamber, decorated in white and the faintest shade of mauve. In t

ced, as she lowered the blind a little more to keep out

last word in the expression of modern life and love. A study of Psyche, in white marble, fascinated him with its wonderful outline and sense of arrested motion. The atmosphere appeared to him intensely feminine and yet strange. He realised suddenly that it contained no knick-knacks,-nothing, in short, but books and flowers. Perhaps his greatest surprise, however, came at the opening of the door. It seemed at first that he was confronted by a stranger. The woman who entered in a perfectly white gown of some clin

at home-such an unusual event that I took it for granted it meant a tête-à-tête.-I don't quite know why I treat you with such an extraordinary amount of confidence," she went on, "but I feel that I must and it helps me so much. A tête-à-tê

smiling, "that I am disappoin

wered, raising her ey

egged. "I hope your husband's absence this eve

wonderingly. "Why on earth sh

t of way the declared enemy of the British and Imperial Granari

ortunity of telling him. A servant rang up from the club, half an hour ago, to say that he would not be home. Come, here is dinner. Will you sit there?" she in

ly the little movable sideboard, with its dainty collection of cold dishes and salads, was wheeled outside by the solitary maid who waited upon them, and nothing was left upon the table but a delicately-shaped Venetian decanter of Chateau Yquem

do servants get on one's nerves so when one wants to

ny one of those subjects I want so much to discuss with you, and perhaps a greater luxury still i

me, by the by, did you notice an air of

s," he admitted. "I notic

"It was after I had a slight breakdown and was sent back from étaples. Some of our patients stayed on for months afte

y itself that remains em

we turned into a hospital are quite cut off from the rest of the place. If ever you m

as pursuing some train of reflection suggested by her words.

t is the laws are so ridiculously undiscriminating. One would have to pay the

our hatred of that p

ove to you this afternoo

tediously melodramatic. My husband, it seems, is in disgrace with the company-has overdrawn, or helped himself to money, or something of the sort. I rather fancy that I am cast for the role of self-sacrificing wife, who saves her husband from prison by little acts

" he

nd to be a philanthropist, or charitable, or anything of that sort. I am wrapped up in my own life and its unha

rsonal interest which had sprung up like a flame in his life. He

the British and Imperial, outside the Stock Exchange altogether, if I em

wer," she answered eagerly. "Te

any details, to get my tools together, and then to decid

t I shall help?

you shall have t

er of the settee. With a little half-conscious ges

that you are making life m

her firmly. "Whatever one has suffered, and howev

urmured. "In this

one," he

a believer in anythin

ve wanted so much to believe that I t

which is responsible for the sorrows of this world must provide compensation. Even history can show us that this has always been the case. Yesterday," she continued, "I went to a spiritual sé

leaven of materialism in me. I have had my disappointments in life.

ned, "that sorrow and unhappiness are akin to disease, a mental i

ilosophy," he confessed

inued, her face losing all the gentle softness which a moment before he had found so fascinating, so reminiscent of those sad, sleepy-e

dy?" he

o need of words. The moment was in its way so wonderful that neither of them heard the opening of the door. It