Sir Henry made a grimace.

"I was beginning to wonder whether curiosity was dead," he observed
good-humouredly. "If you wouldn't mind giving me another--well, to be
on the safe side let us say eight days--I think I shall be able to offer
you an explanation which you will consider satisfactory."

"Thank you," Philippa rejoined, with cold surprise; "I see no reason why
you should not answer such simple questions at once."

Sir Henry sighed deprecatingly, and made another vain attempt to take
his wife's arm.

"Philippa, be a little brick," he begged. "I know I seem to have been
playing the part of a fool just lately, but there has been a sort of
reason for it."

"What reason could there possibly be," she demanded, "which you could
not confide in me?"

He was silent for a moment. When he spoke again there was a new
earnestness in his tone.

"Philippa," he said, "I have been working for some time at a little
scheme which isn't ripe to talk about yet, not even to you, but which
may lead to something which I hope will alter your opinion. You couldn't
see your way clear to trust me a little longer, could you?" he begged,
with rather a plaintive gleam in his blue eyes. "It would make it so
much easier for me to say no more but just have you sit tight."

"I wonder," she answered coldly, "if you realise how much I have
suffered, sitting tight, as you call it, and waiting for you to do
something!"

"My fishing excursions," he went on desperately, "have not been
altogether a matter of sport."

"I know that quite well," she replied. "You have been making that chart
you promised your miserable fishermen. None of those things interest me,
Henry. I fear--I am very much inclined to say that none of your doings
interest me. Least of all," she went on, her voice quivering with
passion, "do I appreciate in the least these mysterious appeals for my
patience. I have some common sense, Henry."

"You're a suspicious little beast," he told her.

"Suspicious!" she scoffed. "What a word to use from a man who goes
off fishing for whiting, and is lunching at the Carlton, some days
afterwards, with two ladies of extraordinary attractions!"

"That was a trifle awkward," Sir Henry admitted, with a little burst of
candour, "but it goes in with the rest, Philippa."

"Then it can stay with the rest," she retorted, "exactly where I have
placed it in my mind. Please understand me. Your conduct for the last
twelve months absolves me from