ke your dove happy?
Another thing--yes! The dove must triumph--for she bore Leonard's
escutcheon, and must bear it victorious against his enemies. The serpent
bade the dove wing her happy way!

Might not the dove be made bearer also of an olive branch, made a
harbinger of peace? That was the idea which Jenny sought to put in
Alison's mind when she brought him on to the terrace. Could not all that
grace and joy avail to blot out the name she bore? It was only a name--a
thing intangible--a name, if Jenny's plan prospered, soon to be deleted,
buried under a new and newly significant designation. She must bring
memories with her--of old wrong and old humiliation? Could she not
herself destroy even what she brought? She seemed made to do it. Who
could bear a grudge against that simple joyfulness, who resist that
unconscious pleading for oblivion? Alison was to go from the terrace
with a new zeal for the commission that he had undertaken, to go with
his cause much closer to his heart.

While he was still there, Dormer whizzed up the drive in his motor car.
He had come to meet Lacey at Breysgate, and drive him over to Hingston
to dine and sleep. Lacey affected Hingston for his night quarters more
than ever now--and Dormer generally fetched him from Breysgate; it was
an arrangement convenient to both parties.

Jenny had told so much truth that she was inclined for a little
mischief. She greeted the newcomer with coquettish demureness, marking,
with a smile and a glance at me, Dormer's ill-concealed surprise at
Alison's presence, and at the good terms on which he seemed to be with
his hostess. Dormer asked for whisky and soda, and I went with him to
minister to his wants.

"Did Lacey bring the parson?" he asked, after a first eager gulp.

"Oh, no. Alison came of his own accord--came to call, you know," I
answered.

"Did he?" He would obviously have liked to ask more questions. "That's
being neighborly, at all events," he ventured to comment, with a covert
leer. "We shall be seeing Fillingford--or even Lady Sarah--here next!"

"More unlikely things than that have happened."

"That's what I always remember," he remarked, nodding sagaciously over
his long tumbler. "What I say is--try your luck, even if it does need a
bit of cheek."

I had a notion that Dormer was inclining toward the confidential.

"If it doesn't come off, you're no worse than you were before. If it
does, there you are, by Jove!"

"I should think that