IT DEVELOPED next day that Aaron had an engagement at the Union Tavern in Georgetown, and, though this was to be a masculine political dinner, he urged Theodosia to accompany him, suggesting that she might visit either the Stodderts or the Carrolls until he was free to rejoin her. But she pleaded headache and fatigue so successfully that he reluctantly gave in.

His absence would be providential. There would be some free hours in which to see Meme. But how? And where? The rain continued. Their meeting-place by the river would have been impossible even had Merne not vetoed it. She considered summoning him to the boarding-house, but rejected it at once. The landlady was a renowned gossip and possessed of a fierce curiosity about the comings and goings of her boarders.

Theo locked her chamber door and paced up and down nervously. It can't just stop like this, she thought. We've had so much beauty, it can't be all over. If we can be alone and quiet once more, I can bear it afterward. There's so much we haven't said to each other. Just once more—please. Then I'll be good. I promise I will.

She didn't know what entity she was trying to propitiate in this old childish formula; she was beyond coherent thought.

It was Eleanore who provided the solution. She tapped on the door to ask some question about the baby's clothing, and when Theo finally unlocked it, the maid ran to her mistress with a cry of sympathy.

'Mon Dieu, Madame. Qu'avez-vous?'

She soon found out the trouble and, while her sympathy deepened, it became tinged by the amusement which passion always inspires in those not involved. La pauvre petite! So now her fine lover was going away. Papa had returned, le mari would soon be here, and the lover must leave. Madame wished to say farewell in private: most natural.

'Mais c'est tout simple, Madame. There is a house in the woods by Rock Creek where they take couples embarrassed as you arc. The owner is bien discret. No one will be the wiser,' said Eleanore, who had her own channels for finding out things.

Theodosia flushed. 'You mean it is a house of assignation?'

The maid shrugged her stalwart shoulders. 'Ah bien, one may call it what one likes. But when one is starving, one docs not examine a crust of bread too closcly, n'est-cc-pas?'

'I suppose not,' said Theo slowly. For, after all, what difference did it make, as long as they would be together?

She wrote a brief note and handed it to Eleanore with instructions.

'Soyez tranquille, Madame. I will arrange everything. How fortunate that monsieur votre père is going elsewhere tonight. When the cat's away, the mice will play.'

Theodosia sprang to her feet. 'Hold your tongue!' she blazed.

Eleanore's jaw dropped; she was too astonished to feel indignant at the first anger she had ever seen in her mistress.