stair to be. In the present instance the pang was mitigated to a
certain extent--not largely--by the fact that Phyllis looked at me. She
did not move her head, and I could not have declared positively that
she moved her eyes; but nevertheless she certainly looked at me. It was
something. She seemed to say that duty compelled her to follow her
father's lead, and that the act must not be taken as evidence of any
personal animus.

That, at least, was how I read off the message.

Two days later I met Mr. Chase in the village.

"Hullo, so you're back," I said.

"You've discovered my secret," he admitted; "will you have a cigar or a
cocoanut?"

There was a pause.

"Trouble I hear, while I was away," he said.

I nodded.

"The man I live with, Ukridge, did what you warned me against. Touched
on the Irish question."

"Home Rule?"

"He mentioned it among other things."

"And the professor went off?"

"Like a bomb."

"He would. So now you have parted brass rags. It's a pity."

I agreed. I am glad to say that I suppressed the desire to ask him to
use his influence, if any, with Mr. Derrick to effect a reconciliation.
I felt that I must play the game. To request one's rival to give one
assistance in the struggle, to the end that he may be the more readily
cut out, can hardly be considered cricket.

"I ought not to be speaking to you, you know," said Mr. Chase. "You're
under arrest."

"He's still----?" I stopped for a word.

"Very much so. I'll do what I can."

"It's very good of you."

"But the time is not yet ripe. He may be said at present to be
simmering down."

"I see. Thanks. Good-bye."

"So long."

And Mr. Chase walked on with long strides to the Cob.

The days passed slowly. I saw nothing more of Phyllis or her sister.
The professor I met once or twice on the links. I had taken earnestly
to golf in this time of stress. Golf is the game of disappointed
lovers. On the other hand, it does not follow that because a man is a
failure as a lover he will be any good at all on the links. My game was
distinctly poor at first. But a round or two put me back into my proper
form, which is fair.

The professor's demeanour at these accidental meetings on the links was
a faithful reproduction of his attitude on the beach. Only by a studied
imitation of the Absolute Stranger did he show that he had observed my
presence.

Once or twice, after dinner, when Ukridge was smoking one of his
special cigars while