The Oaks was deserted; no pickaninnies were in sight around the wide white steps. The blinds were drawn, and the house at first sight gave an impression of blank emptiness. This she had expected. Joseph would not be here during the fever season; he might be at Columbia, Debordieu, or Sullivan's Island. But the servants could tell her where, of course. They would be on their 'street,' and she debated asking there first, but on impulse tried the front door and found it open.

The drawing-room, with its furniture shrouded in dustcloths, its rugs rolled, seemed cool and faintly inviting. She sat down to rest a moment on the swathed sofa, and looked up, startled, at the ceiling. Above her head there was a murmur of voices, a woman's throaty laugh.

The niggers, she thought angrily. Can they possibly have the effrontery to use the bedrooms? She ran upstairs. The murmurs came from Joseph's room. Without hesitation, without the slightest presentiment, she flung open the door.

For a blind instant she thought her surmise was confirmed. There was a flash of amber-colored skin and a scream. 'Niggers ——' The epithet strangled, unuttered. She stood paralyzed, staring. I'm going to be sick, she thought, with impersonal interest. She put her hand to her mouth to choke down the sensation of retching.

Not 'niggers' in the plural, but Venus and Joseph. Vaguely she saw his sweating face, white as paste, his coarse hair ludicrously mussed, clutching his dressing-gown around him, his eyes popping at her. She saw him but vaguely because her entire attention was concentrated on Venus. The girl in a white shift had a savage beauty. If she had felt shame for a second, it was gone. Her tigerish eyes were yellow with malignancy and triumph. She tilted back her head on its long column of throat, the color and texture of yellowed ivory. And she laughed.

'Welcome, Mistiss. You'm onexpected, enty?' Her insolence was alive, like a beast springing.

From the moment we saw each other, it has been leading to this, thought Theo, and abruptly she became calm. The first nauseating shock vanished. The girl has always hated me, been jealous of me. She thinks she has her revenge now.

'Theodosia——For God's sake. What arc you going to do?'

She turned and contemplated Joseph. He was in real anguish, in an agony of remorse that transcended shame. Even though he had been caught in the most embarrassing situation known to man, he had recaptured some dignity. He no longer looked ridiculous.

' What is there for me to do?' she said quietly.

Venus darted forward, her thin, voluptuous face raised defiantly. 'Yo' speak truth. Yo' kain' do nothin'. You'm no wife. You'm cold as graveyard stone. Ober and ober yo' go way off and leave him. Always yo' pleasure yo'self. Dat's howcome yo' los' yo' man.'

'Shut up, you bitch!' Joseph dealt her a clout across the mouth.