s! You wait--Still we love 'em."

"Are you now satisfied?" Henry asked.

Margaret began to grow frightened. "I don't know what it is all about,"
she said. "Let's come in."

But he thought she was acting. He thought he was trapped. He saw his
whole life crumbling. "Don't you indeed?" he said bitingly. "I do. Allow
me to congratulate you on the success of your plan."

"This is Helen's plan, not mine."

"I now understand your interest in the Basts. Very well thought out.
I am amused at your caution, Margaret. You are quite right--it was
necessary. I am a man, and have lived a man's past. I have the honour to
release you from your engagement."

Still she could not understand. She knew of life's seamy side as a
theory; she could not grasp it as a fact. More words from Jacky were
necessary--words unequivocal, undenied.

"So that--" burst from her, and she went indoors. She stopped herself
from saying more.

"So what?" asked Colonel Fussell, who was getting ready to start in the
hall.

"We were saying--Henry and I were just having the fiercest argument, my
point being--" Seizing his fur coat from a footman, she offered to help
him on. He protested, and there was a playful little scene.

"No, let me do that," said Henry, following.

"Thanks so much! You see--he has forgiven me!"

The Colonel said gallantly: "I don't expect there's much to forgive."

He got into the car. The ladies followed him after an interval.
Maids, courier, and heavier luggage had been sent on earlier by the
branch-line. Still chattering, still thanking their host and patronising
their future hostess, the guests were borne away.

Then Margaret continued: "So that woman has been your mistress?"

"You put it with your usual delicacy," he replied.

"When, please?"

"Why?"

"When, please?"

"Ten years ago."

She left him without a word. For it was not her tragedy; it was Mrs.
Wilcox's.

CHAPTER XXVII

Helen began to wonder why she had spent a matter of eight pounds in
making some people ill and others angry. Now that the wave of excitement
was ebbing, and had left her, Mr. Bast, and Mrs. Bast stranded for the
night in a Shropshire hotel, she asked herself what forces had made the
wave flow. At all events, no harm was done. Margaret would play the game
properly now, and though Helen disapproved of her sister's methods, she
knew that the Basts would benefit by them in the long-run.

"Mr. Wilcox is so illogical," she explained