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[] "Above all, Mr. Hastings, watch that devil-her husband!"

[] There was no time for more. Miss Howard was swallowed up in an eager chorus of protests and good-byes. The Inglethorps did not appear.

[] As the motor drove away, Mrs. Cavendish suddenly detached herself from the group, and moved across the drive to the lawn to meet a tall bearded man who had been evidently making for the house. The colour rose in her cheeks as she held out her hand to him.

[] "Who is that?" I asked sharply, for instinctively I distrusted the man.

[] "That's Dr. Bauerstein," said John shortly.

[] "And who is Dr. Bauerstein?"

[] "He's staying in the village doing a rest cure, after a bad nervous breakdown. He's a London specialist; a very clever man-one of the greatest living experts on poisons, I believe."

[] "And he's a great friend of Mary's," put in Cynthia, the irrepressible.

[] John Cavendish frowned and changed the subject.

[] "Come for a stroll, Hastings. This has been a most rotten business. She always had a rough tongue, but there is no stauncher friend in England than Evelyn Howard."

[] He took the path through the plantation, and we walked down to the village through the woods which bordered one side of the estate.

[] As we passed through one of the gates on our way home again, a pretty young woman of gipsy type coming in the opposite direction bowed and smiled.

[] "That's a pretty girl," I remarked appreciatively.

[] John's face hardened.

"That is Mrs. Raikes."

[] "The one that Miss Howard--"

[] "Exactly," said John, with rather unnecessary abruptness.

[] I thought of the white-haired old lady in the big house, and that vivid wicked little face that had just smiled into ours, and a vague chill of foreboding crept over me. I brushed it aside.

[] "Styles is really a glorious old place," I said to John.

[] He nodded rather gloomily.

[] "Yes, it's a fine property. It'll be mine some day-should be mine now by rights, if my father had only made a decent will. And then I shouldn't be so damned hard up as I am now."

[] "Hard up, are you?"

[] "My dear Hastings, I don't mind telling you that I'm at my wit's end for money."

[] "Couldn't your brother help you?"

[] "Lawrence? He's gone through every penny he ever had, publishing rotten verses in fancy bindings. No, we're an impecunious lot. My mother's always been awfully good to us, I must say. That is, up to now. Since her marriage, of course--" he broke off, frowning.

[] For the first time I felt that, with Evelyn Howard, something indefinable had gone from the atmosphere. Her presence had spelt security. Now that security was removed-and the air seemed rife with suspicion. The sinister face of Dr. Bauerstein recurred to me unpleasantly. A vague suspicion of every one and everything filled my mind. Just for a moment I had a premonition of approaching evil.