g away from her with both hands
during the weeks since her return the temptation which at this moment
was offered to her. Nelly was only too conscious of the strength of her
desire to hear something of Godfrey Langrishe.

It was a feeling she did not dare look in the face. If she had had any
idea at the time she agreed to marry Robin that she was going to be
haunted by the thought of another man she would never have agreed. Even
of late there had been moments when her common-sense had whispered in
her ears, protesting against the folly of marrying one man when another
had so taken possession of her thoughts. But day by day the net had been
drawn closer about her feet. The wedding-clothes, the wedding-breakfast,
the bridesmaids, the wedding-cake, the hundred and one arrangements for
the wedding, had all been strands of the net that held her ever tighter
and tighter. How could she, at this stage, contemplate the breaking of
her engagement? How could she? The courage of her race had not risen to
that.

Mrs. Rooke suggested a 'bus, and Nelly agreed. Now that she had done the
thing against which her conscience protested she did not want to think
over-much. She even wanted to postpone the hearing of the name which she
had been hungry to hear for so long. The news she had desired too. How
was she going to listen to his name, to talk of him calmly? She wanted
time to gain courage. A 'bus did not give one opportunities for talking,
hardly for thinking.

She knew perfectly well that she should find a clear coast at Sherwood
Square. The General had come part of the journey into town with her on
his way to the club. Poor Sir Denis! If he could only have seen his
Nelly now he would not have been so easy in his mind. Lady Drummond was
engaged during the morning hours; she had to lunch with an old friend.
Nelly had been contemplating lunch in a quiet Regent Street restaurant
rather than the going back to the lonely meal at home. She had known
that a telegram to Robin would have brought him to her side, but she had
not meditated sending that telegram. She had been glad, in her innermost
guilty, repentant heart of her morning of freedom from mother and son.

The 'bus rumbled along as that vehicle of the middle ages does, making a
prodigious screaming in the ears, filling one with horrible electric
thrills as the brake was jammed down. Neither conversation nor thinking
was possible. Nelly closed her eyes a little wearily in her corner