My eyes wandered back to the upper shelf; and, like the fool I was (there is no milder word that can fitly describe me at that moment), I took the photograph out again, and enraged myself uselessly by another look at it.

This time I observed, what I had not noticed before, that there were some lines of writing (in a woman's hand) at the back of the portraits.

The lines ran thus: "To Major Fitz-David, with two vases.

From his friends, S.and E.M." Was one of those two vases the vase that had been broken?
And was the change that I had noticed in Major Fitz-David's face produced by some past association in connection with it, which in some way affected me?
It might or might not be so.

I was little disposed to indulge in speculation on this topic while the far more serious question of the initials confronted me on the back of the photograph.
"S.