By Cast: about as best she could for information, Mrs, Drury was no nearer finding out what had been, Mrs, Reynolds's ante cedents at the end of ten days than she had been on that memorable day when her curiosity, ill-placed as she now admitted it to have been, had taken her on board the Indeed, she seemed farther than ever from solving the mystery. Tom Alison was gone, but not before he had strongly impressed on Angus Murray the necessity of keeping dark all he knew about the fair Isabel. Angus, with all his faults and self-conceit, was a gentleman, and had steadily refused to be drawn by Mrs. Drury, or even his tuipan's wife, on the subject. It might have been more difficult for him to keep his counsel had he been left for a length of time in Kantow, but unluckily for Mrs. Drury's chances,' Mr. De Lacy Smith sent him to taste tea at Banca, some twelve miles up the Kantow river. And as tions there were mostly Chinese compradores, three or four Parsees, opium merchants, and Portuguese clerks, the temptation to talk was not overwhelmingly great. Meanwhile, Isabel Reynolds was far from dull. The Due de Horny had established himself as her cavalier, and the nervous discomfort of the Con 1 at his presence in the house every day since their arrival served as the kind of zest Isabel required to her excitement. Mr. Reynolds had a trick of bustling into the drawing-room where de Horny sat smoking his cigarette after tea, looking aimlessly and hopelessly about the room as though for some missing yet unexistent article, and then hurrying out again. This would be repeated about every ten minutes.
Isabel would giggle, and de Borny—well,. it would be difficult to give a name tothe expression on his countenance. And Isabel had really no need of this supervision on the part of her husband; only she was trying to enjoy herself in her own partieu-
Five days after her arrival Mrs, De Lacy" Smith and Mrs, Clay both called at the Banca, 1g sume Chinese mandarins, Consulate. Mr, Reynolds was sway at and Isabel had consequently been very dull all day. So she received her visitors almost with open arms, and was 80. very cordial, if not winning, in her manner that Mrs, De Lacy Smith's heart was quite captivated. 'The ladies paid their call Defore four o'clock in the afternoon, so the gallant Duc was not on guard, he being Kept till that hour adding' up or subtracting figures, or mending riding whips, or any other such profitable occupation, in the Custom House, Mrs, Smith. began to feel a little indignant with Mrs. Drary fo having so maligned the pretty Mrs, Rey: naids, by the time she rose to say goodby "You must come and see me, my dear, she said in her kind motherly way. This is a dull place in summer, and we mu try and get up some amusement for you, Isubel enthusiastically threw her arms round the stout lady's neck and kissed her. This action entirely finished Mrs. Smith, and she walked out of the house deter: mined to stand by this maligned beauty through thick and thin, Nor did her resolution falter even when Mrs, Clay, who had not been quite 0 enchanted, pointed out the magnificent de Horny, in his favourite checks and tiny straw hat perched over one ear, deliberately making his way up the hill with a strong tendency towards the Consulate. So, in a frame of mind utterly and beautiful eppy (for Mrs, De Lacy Smith had felt very uncomfortable these five days as regarded the future morality of Kantow) she arrived at the big red house, and ceeded to the Herculean of throwing Mss. Drury' prejudices Mrs, Clay, who felt the guilty who has been bowing herself in the house simmon, took refuge with the Com-who was drinking tea and ig cake at an express rate, Of all women who bored him, perhaps Mrs, Clay was the greatest bore, with her endless tales of children and amahs, and her uncomfortable manner of suddenly appealing for an opinion on some subject, when her unhappy victim had been listening to a conversation which was going on at a little distance. So the Commissioner sat watch an opportunity tv bolt, when to his great surprise the flow of Mrs. Clay's talk suddenly ceased, and he found out that she was actually listening to what Mr Drury and Mrs. De Lacy Smith were say ing.
fe conversation was certainly becoming somewhat animated. Mrs, Smith, who had come armed for the tight, had evidently taken Mrs, Drury by surprise, The position was, indeed, being gradually won inch by inch, since Mrs. Drury had admitted that Isabel was pretty, and that as nothing was definitely known against her, the probabilities were that there was nothing to know. This Inst was not got without much hard fighting, but just as the Commissioner had begun to hope danger in that quarter was over, Mrs, Clay ut What do you think of the way she goes on with the Due de Horny? Do you think that right, Mrs. Smith Both the combatants turned round suddenly and looked at Mrs. Clay, Mrs. Drury triumphantly, Mrs. Smith with an expression of vexation. It was a difficult nut for Mrs. Smith to crack, but she made a laudable attempt at it.
"She has been only here five days," she said. "You can't judge of a person by five days."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.