julia took a closed fly at stanmore, and in the avenue of white lodge her eyes moved constantly from one window to the other. but on this bright hot afternoon there was neither sound nor motion in the woods. she feared that the house might be without servants, but as the fly entered the garden she saw that the windows were open and that smoke rose from the kitchen chimney. white lodge was built round three sides of a shallow court, and after dismissing the fly, she attempted to open the door on her right, as it was close to the stair which communicated with the hallway outside her own rooms. but this door was locked. so apparently were the central doors, but the one opposite and leading into the dining room was open, and not caring to ring and announce herself, she crossed the court and entered; although this meant that she must traverse the entire house to reach the comparative shelter of her own apartment. the large rooms were full of light, but she was nearly ten minutes arriving at her destination, for she opened every door warily, and explored dark corridors with her eyes before she put her foot in them. but even on the twisted stair she met no one, and the house was as silent as the wood.

when she entered her boudoir, she saw that the door leading into her bedroom was closed. for a moment she was grateful, as it was a room of hideous memories, and she intended to sleep on her wide sofa as long as she was obliged to remain at white lodge. then she remembered that its inner door led into france’s rooms, and that she intended to move a heavy piece of furniture across it.

she opened the door cautiously and looked in. this room was very dark and close; the heavy curtains were drawn across the windows. by such light as she had let in she could define nothing but shapeless masses of heavy furniture, not an outline; it would have been difficult to tell a man from a bedpost. she was about to close the door and ring for a servant when the one opposite opened and the big frame of her husband seemed to fill the sudden panel of light. there was not a key in the boudoir, nor time to move furniture. julia retreated behind a table.

france crossed the inner room at his leisure and entered. julia almost relieved the tension of her feelings by laughing aloud. every man that had come back from the boer war looked ten years older, but she had seen no one before that looked ridiculous as well. not only were his stiff hair and moustache gray and his bony face gaunt, but the copper color of the tan he had acquired during the months preceding his weeks in hospital clung to his pallid face in patches, making him look as if afflicted with some foul disease; and he had lost a front tooth. his glassy eyes, however, were less dull, and moved restlessly.

“howd’y do?” he said. “didn’t expect you till to-night or to-morrow. good girls! good girls!”

he was about to turn the corner of the table when he paused abruptly and his jaw fell. he found himself looking into the barrel of a small revolver.

“sit down,” said julia. “i’m willing to talk to you for a few moments, but if you come a step nearer, i’ll shoot.”

france made a movement as if he would spring. the pistol advanced, and he stood staring into the thing. he was a brave man on the battlefield, but he had never looked into the mouth of a firearm at close range, and he disliked the sensation it induced. he gave a loud laugh and sat down.

“oh, well, my lady, have your dramatics. i can wait. what’ve you got to say? seems to me you should have a good deal. nice pair of liars you and your aunt!”

julia took the chair directly opposite his.

“i have come back—”

“oh, i say! that thing will go off. pistols were not made for women to fool with.”

julia put the pistol in her lap.

“i have returned to white lodge to protect ishbel, and for no other reason. your plot was fiendish, and you won out. but i win now. i shall not leave you again, but i shall be my own mistress. i shall no longer call you names nor attempt to make you understand how i loathe you, but if you ever enter my rooms again or attempt to touch me, here or elsewhere, i shall shoot you without further notice!”

“oh, you will! and how long do you think you can keep that sort of heroics up? you’ve got to sleep, and there’s not a key in your rooms.”

“there will be to-morrow. i left orders with the locksmith in stanmore. i need not sleep to-night, and i shall meet him when he comes, and stand guard with this pistol. you interfere at your peril.”

“and do you think that keys can keep me out?”

“i shall use both keys and heavy pieces of furniture. you cannot enter without making noise enough to rouse me. and if you succeeded, you would gain nothing. i can always kill myself. i would boil in oil before you should ever touch me again.”

“you are hard for such a young ’un,” muttered france. “gad, your eyes are like ice!” he made a motion as if to cover his own eyes, but they flashed with exultation, and he dropped his hand.

“look here,” he said. “you can’t get the best of me. i gave you to understand there was to be no compromise. you were to come back to me, or your ishbel would be ruined. well, that’s what i meant. you chuck that pistol, and you do everything else i tell you to do, or i send those tarts back to the shop.”

“i can do no more to protect ishbel than i have done already. but i shall not live to see my best friend disgraced and ruined.”

“curse you!” shouted france. “curse you!”

“now suppose you listen to me a moment. since you left england i have consulted not only a solicitor but an alienist?—”

“a—a—what—”

“i believe you to be mad—”

“don’t! don’t!” france’s face was gray and loose. his eyes rolled with terror.

but julia went on remorselessly, pressing the suggestion home.

“the doctor told me that it might be years before you would develop acute mania. unfortunately, your rotten spot has not developed the lust to kill, or you would easily be got rid of. you can practise your former methods of cruelty on me no more, but let this fact compensate you—keep you quiet. use it as a cud; chew on it and exult. it should satisfy you for the rest of your life. this is it: you have destroyed my youth, you have killed my soul, you have ruined my power of enjoyment in anything, you have left me nothing but a mind to carry me through the rest of my days. even if you had died in africa, i should never have given even a thought to loving and being loved like other women. for me you symbolize man and all the horrors that are in him. i live because my mind compels it, and because my mother is still alive. if this statement does not give you food for gloating, if you are incapable of understanding what i mean, then—” she laid her pistol on the table again and tapped it significantly.

but france took no notice of the pistol. he was staring at her with his jaw relaxed, and his eyes still full of horror.

“did—didn’t—he say i might never go mad?”

“so you have thought of it yourself?”

“no—no—not really. but out there when i lay all night on that cursed veldt, and expected to die before they found me—i thought—thought—i had gone pretty far here, even for me—no! no! no! i never really thought it—it was only when i came to in hospital i was jolly glad to find that it had only been delirium—any one might mistake delirium—curse you, you red-headed witch! i had forgotten all about it.”

“and do you suppose that even if you had no inherited tendency to insanity, you could go the pace you did, do the things you have done for years, and not rot your brain?—”

“how many men go the pace?—”

“not yours. if you hadn’t compelled me to return to you, i should have had you watched?—”

“you mean to say you’d lock me up?—”

“i shouldn’t waste a minute. you ought to be locked up on general principles. it’s a half-baked civilization that permits you and your sort to be at large. strange laws! strange justice!”

france gathered himself together and stood up, but he leaned heavily on the table. “you’ve got your revenge,” he said thickly. “nothin’ i ever did crueller to you or any one than tell a man his brain’s rotten—and makin’ him believe it! oh, god! those eyes! if ever i do go mad, i’ll see nothing else.”

“better think no more about it.” julia, having subdued her keeper, felt a pang of remorse and pity. “take my advice and go to bosquith for the shooting?—”

“and see that brat?”

“the duke will think the more of you. remember he is not compelled to allow you a thousand a year. he has a sensitive vanity, and resents lack of attention. besides, the sport will do you good.”

“and you?”

“i shall stay here.”

“and never leave the place?”

“i shall go to london for the day whenever i choose, and i shall ride and walk about the country. i have no desire to see any of my neighbors.”

“very well. i’ll go. i’ve got to pull myself together. i can’t do it here. i’m still off my feed, or you wouldn’t have bowled me over like this. before i come back, i’ll have thought out how to deal with you?—”

julia tapped the pistol again. “i have five others. i shall conceal them in different parts of the house, and carry this always.”

france gave a strangled cry and began to curse, with reviving enthusiasm.

julia rose and leaned across the table.

“be careful,” she said softly. “keep calm. you are forty-six, your heart is not good, and blood cannot surge through your brain much longer with impunity. unless you choose to court apoplexy?—”

but france had bolted from the room. an hour later he was on his way to bosquith.