It cannot be said, however, that he suffered this fact to occupy at all times the foreground of his consciousness.

Bernard was like some great painters; his foregrounds were very happily arranged.

He heard nothing of Mrs.Vivian and her daughter, beyond a rumor that they had gone to Italy; and he learned, on apparently good authority, that Blanche Evers had returned to New York with her mother.

He wondered whether Captain Lovelock was still in pawn at the Hotel de Hollande.

If he did not allow himself to wonder too curiously whether he had done a harm to Gordon, it may be affirmed that he was haunted by the recurrence of that other question, of which mention has already been made.