Adrian asked him if he had chanced to see a young fair-
haired lady by the side of the old one Richard had treated
80 peculiarly; and to the baronet's acknowledgment that



CLARE'S DIARY S9t

he remembered to have observed sr^^sh r^ p^iswm, Adrian
said : "That was his wife, sir/*

Sir Austin could not dissect the living gubject. As if a
bullet had torn open the young man's skull, and some blast
of battle laid his palpitating organization bare, he watched
every motion of his brain and his heart; and wil^ the
grief and terror of one whose mental habit was ever to
pierce to extremes. Not altogether conscious that he had
hitherto played with life, he felt that he was suddexJy
plunged mto the stormful reality of it. He projected to
speak plainly to his son on all points that night.
'^Richard is very gay," Mrs. Doria whispered her
brother.
"All will be right with him to-morrow,*' he replied; for
the game had been in his hands so long, so long had he
been the God of the machine, that having once resolved
to speak plainly and to act, he was to a certain extent
secure, bad as the thing to mend might be.
^ **I notice he has rather a wild laugh — ^I don't exactly
like his oyes," said Mrs. Doria.
'TTou 'mm see a change in him to-morrow," the man of
science remarked.
