d-night."

"Something private?" asked Nick.

She put her hand to her throat; her face was ghastly. Her voice came
with visible effort. "It concerns--Max," she said.

Max neither moved nor spoke. He was looking very fixedly at Olga. There
was something merciless in his attitude.

Nick flashed a swift glance at him, and slipped his arm round the girl.
She was quivering with agitation, yet she made as if she would free
herself.

"Please, Nick!" she said imploringly. "I want to be strong. Help me to
be strong!"

"All right, dear," he said gently. "You can count on me. What's the
trouble? Hunt-Goring again?"

She shivered at the name. "No--no! At least--not alone. He hasn't
worried me."

She became silent, painfully, desperately silent, while she fought for
self-control.

Again Nick glanced across at Max. "Pour out a glass of wine!" he said
briefly.

Max stood up. He went to the table, and very deliberately mixed a little
brandy and water. His face, as he did it, was absolutely composed. He
might have been thinking of something totally removed from the matter in
hand.

Yet, as he turned round, the air of grimness was perceptible again. He
held out the glass to Nick. "I think I'll go," he said.

"No!" It was Olga who spoke. She stretched out a detaining hand. "I want
you--please--to stay. I--I--"

She faltered and stopped as Max's hand closed quietly and strongly upon
hers.

"Very well," he said. "I'll stay. But drink this like a sensible girl!
You're cold."

She obeyed him, leaning upon Nick's shoulder, and gradually the deadly
pallor of her face passed. She drew her hand out of Max's grasp, and
relinquished Nick's support.

"I'm dreadfully sorry," she said, and her voice came dull and oddly
indifferent. "You are both so good to me. But I think one generally has
to face the worst things in life by oneself. Nick, I asked you a little
while ago to fill in a gap in my memory--to tell me something I had
forgotten. Do you remember?"

"I do," said Nick. Like Max, he was watching her closely, but his eyes
moved unceasingly; they glimmered behind his colourless lashes with a
weird fitfulness.

Olga was looking straight at him. She had never stood in awe of Nick.

"You didn't do it," she said in the same level, tired voice. "You put me
off. You refused to fill in the gap."

"Well?" said Nick. His tone was abrupt; for the first time in all her
knowledge of him it sounded stern.

But Olga remained unmoved