Page 8 (1/2)

Ricardo read through the paragraph with a growing consternation,

and laid the paper upon his dressing-table

"It is infalishwoman is, I suppose, your friend Miss Celia?"

said Ricardo slowly

Wethermill started forward

"You know her, then?" he cried in amazement

"No; but I saw her with you in the rooether?" exclaimed Wetherestion is"

But Ricardo had seen the girl half an hour before he had seen her

with Harry Wethermill He could not but vividly re herself on to the bench in the garden

in a moment of hysteria, and petulantly kicked a satin slipper

backwards and forwards against the stones She was young, she was

pretty, she had a charainst it

as he would, this picture in the recollection began more and more

to wear a sinister aspect He reer "She is pretty, that little one It is regrettable that

she has lost"

Mr Ricardo arranged his tie with even a greater deliberation than

he usually employed