added
abruptly as he held out his hand:

'Now give me my letter!'

In the last few seconds Harold had been thinking. And as he had been
thinking for the good, the safety, of Stephen, his thoughts flew swift
and true. This man's very tone, the openness of his malignity, the
underlying scorn when he spoke of her whom others worshipped, showed him
the danger--the terrible immediate danger in which she stood from such a
man. With the instinct of a mind working as truly for the woman he loved
as the needle does to the Pole he spoke quietly, throwing a sneer into
the tone so as to exasperate his companion--it was brain against brain
now, and for Stephen's sake:

'And of course you accepted. You naturally would!' The other fell into
the trap. He could not help giving an extra dig to his opponent by
proving him once more in the wrong.

'Oh no, I didn't! Stephen is a fine girl; but she wants taking down a
bit. She's too high and mighty just at present, and wants to boss a chap
too much. I mean to be master in my own house; and she's got to begin as
she will have to go on. I'll let her wait a bit: and then I'll yield by
degrees to her lovemaking. She's a fine girl, for all her red head; and
she won't be so bad after all!'

Harold listened, chilled into still and silent amazement. To hear
Stephen spoken of in such a way appalled him. She of all women! . . .
Leonard never knew how near sudden death he was, as he lay back in his
seat, his eyes getting dull again and his chin sinking. The drunkenness
which had been arrested by his passion was reasserting itself. Harold
saw his state in time and arrested his own movement to take him by the
throat and dash him to the ground. Even as he looked at him in scornful
hate, the cart gave a lurch and Leonard fell forward. Instinctively
Harold swept an arm round him and held him up. As he did so the
unconsciousness of arrested sleep came; Leonard's chin sank on his breast
and he breathed stertorously.

As he drove on, Harold's thoughts circled in a tumult. Vague ideas of
extreme measures which he ought to take flashed up and paled away.
Intention revolved upon itself till its weak side was exposed, and, it
was abandoned. He could not doubt the essential truth of Leonard's
statement regarding the proposal of marriage. He did not understand this
nor did he try to. His own love for the girl and the bitter awaking to
its futility made him so hopeless that in his own de