4. FROM EIGHT TO ELEVEN O'CLOCK P.M.Manston was very friendly that evening. It was evident to her,
now that she was behind the scenes, that he was making desperate
efforts to disguise the real state of his mind.
Her terror of him did not decrease. They sat down to supper,
Manston still talking cheerfully. But what is keener than the eye
of a mistrustful woman? A man's cunning is to it as was the armour
of Sisera to the thin tent-nail. She found, in spite of his
adroitness, that he was attempting something more than a disguise
of his feeling. He was trying to distract her attention, that he
might be unobserved in some special movement of his hands.
What a moment it was for her then! The whole surface of her body
became attentive. She allowed him no chance whatever. We know the
d
