he sea-lawn with Bobby and his
tutor. Bobby made friends with him at once.

Then shortly Loring and Belinda came in from a ride. It amused Amaldi
that Belinda appropriated him at once. This Attitude of hers suited him
very well. He could see Sophy often in this way, while being considered
"_le flirt_" of Miss Horton. He would also have opportunities of
observing Loring in his own home. This, just at present, was what he
most desired. He wished to find out what sort of man was behind the
persona of that beautiful mask. Now as he responded with discretion to
Belinda's rather familiar chaffing, he thought that Loring's glance was
slightly hostile. He sat sipping a cup of tea in silence, looking at
them every now and then over its brim.

Belinda thought it "bully fun" to flirt with Amaldi "under Morry's very
nose." What a dog in the manger Morry was! He hadn't the courage to
claim her himself, yet he glowered and sulked because another man
responded to her bewitchment.

Sophy wondered what impression Amaldi was really receiving. She could
not help thinking that the fencing between them was much as if Belinda
wielded a bludgeon and Amaldi a rapier. And as this thought came to her,
she winced, remembering that horrible time when she had seen Amaldi
himself use a stick as a sword.

It was Loring's attitude throughout the scene that chiefly impressed
Amaldi. "It is not possible...." he kept saying to himself. "No ... it's
impossible...."

But the more he noticed those sullen, lowering glances of Loring in
their direction, the more he felt that what he declared "impossible" was
a fact.

Was that, then, the secret of Sophy's tired, subdued eyes? Did she still
love that handsome, sulky boy, while he turned from her to this obvious
young seductress? Amaldi felt hot with pain and anger at the mere
surmise. Yet the situation was most likely. And if it were so, Belinda
was "playing him off" to rouse the other's jealousy. "Little minx!"
thought Amaldi in English. It made him furious to think that she might
be using him in this way in the very presence of the woman he adored.

He went away some moments later with a troubled spirit. What could
friendship avail here? He had not realised that part of his high mood
had come from the conjecture that Sophy no longer loved the man she had
married. What had he or "friendship" to do in a _galere_ already
weighted to the water-line with love and jealousy? Hope is so inevitably
one with l