The fifth heat in the free-for-all was just over. "Lu-Lu" had won, and the crowd on the grand stand and the hangers-on around the track were cheering themselves . Clear through the noisy clamour a woman's cry.  
"Ah—I have dropped my scorecard."
 
A man in front of her turned.
 
"I have an extra one, madame. Will you accept it?"
 
Her small, modishly-gloved hand closed eagerly on it before she lifted her eyes to his face. Both started convulsively. The man turned very pale, but the woman's ripe-tinted face coloured darkly.
 
"You?" she .
 
His lips parted in the coldly-grave smile she remembered and hated.
 
"You are not glad to see me," he said calmly, "but that, I suppose, was not to be expected. I did not come here to annoy you. This meeting is as unexpected to me as to you. I had no suspicion that for the last half-hour I had been next to my—"
 
She interrupted him by an imperious gesture. Still clutching the scorecard she half-turned from him. Again he smiled, this time with a of scorn, and shifted his eyes to the track.
 
None of the people around them had noticed the little by-play. All eyes were on the track, which was being cleared for the first heat of another race. The free-for-all horses were being led away blanketed. The crowd cheered "Lu-Lu" as she went past, a shapeless oddity. The backers of "", the rival favourite, looked gloomy.
 
The woman noticed nothing of all this. She was small, very pretty, still young, and gowned in a quite unmistakable way. She studied the man's profile . He looked older than when she had seen him last—there were some silver threads gleaming in his close-clipped dark hair and short, beard. Otherwise there was little change in the quiet features and somewhat stern grey eyes. She wondered if he had cared at all.
 
They had not met for five years. She shut her eyes and looked in on her past. It all came back very . She had been eighteen when they were married—a gay, high-spirited girl and the season's beauty. He was much older and a quiet, serious student. Her friends had wondered why she married him—sometimes she wondered herself, but she had loved him, or thought so.
 
The marriage had been an unhappy one. She was fond of society and gaiety, he wanted quiet and . She Was and impatient, he deliberate and grave. The strong wills clashed. After two years of an sort of life they had separated—quietly, and without scandal of any sort. She had wanted a divorce, but he would not agree to that, so she had taken her own independent fortune and gone back to her own way of life. In the following five years she had succeeded in burying all remembrance well out of sight. No one knew if she were satisfied or not; her world was charitable to her and she lived a gay and quite life. She wished that she had not come to the races. It was such an irritating encounter. She opened her eyes wearily; the dusty track, the flying horses, the gay dresses of the women on the grandstand, the cloudless blue sky, the brilliant September sunshine, the purple distances all in a glare that made her head ache. Before it all she saw the tall figure by her side, his face turned from her, watching the track intently.
 
She wondered with a vague curiosity what induced him to come to the races. Such things were not greatly in his line. Evidently their chance meeting had not disturbed him. It was a sign that he did not care. She sighed a little wearily and closed her eyes. When the heat was over he turned to her.
 
"May I ask how you have been since—since we met last? You are looking extremely well. Has Vanity Fair in any degree?"
 
She was angry at herself and him. Where had her careless society manner and well-bred composure gone? She felt weak and . What if she should burst into tears before the whole crowd—before those coldly critical grey eyes? She almost hated him.
 
"No—why should it? I have found it very pleasant—and I have been well—very well. And you?"
 
He down the score carefully before he replied.
 
"I? Oh, a book-worm and always leads a life. I never cared for excitement, you know. I came down here to attend a sale of some rare editions, and a well-meaning friend dragged me out to see the races. I find it rather intere............