All that day he worked, and once again as evening fell he sat on the sofa, staring blankly at what he had done. Once again the shadow shifted on the painted face, and fell where the light from the window would naturally cast it, and once again cold fear clutched at his heart. At that moment he heard steps along the passage, steps which he knew, and Margery entered.
"Frank," she said, opening the door, "are you there?"
A long figure sprang off the sofa and ran across the room to her, half smothering her in caresses.
"Oh, Margery, I'm so glad you've come," he said--"so glad. You don't know what it has been without you. Margery, promise you won't go away again till it is finished. You won't go away again, will you?"
Margery shuddered and drew back a moment, she hardly knew why.
"Why, Frank, what's the matter?" she asked. "Have you seen a ghost--or what?"
"The place is full of ghosts," said he. "But they won't trouble me any more now you've come back. Let's go out, away from here."
"But I want to see the portrait first," said she.
Frank took two quick steps to where it was standing, and wheeled it round with its face to the wall.
"Not to-night," he said. "Please don't look at it to-night. You can't see it by this light."
"I know I can't," said she, "but I only wanted to peep at it to see if it had got on."
"It has got on," said Frank, "it has got on wonderfully. But don't look at it to-night. It is terrible after sunset."
"Oh, don't be so silly," she said. "However, I don't mind waiting till to-morrow. Is it good?"
"Come out of this place, and I'll tell you about it."
Outside the west was still luminous with the sunken sun, and as they stepped out on to the terrace Margery turned to look at Frank. His face seemed terribly tired and anxious, and there were deep shades beneath his eyes. But again, as a few moments before in the shadow, she involuntarily shrank from him. There was something in his face more than what mere weariness and anxiety would produce--something she had seen in the face he had sketched two days ago, and the something she knew she had shrunk from before, though she had not seen it. But in a moment she pulled herself together; if she were going to go in for fantastic fears too, the allowance of sanity between them would not be enough for daily consumption. Frank, however, noticed it at once.