at him, blushing
and laughing.

"At a terrible price, poor Harry?" she said.

"At a big price," he answered.

She looked round at the three. Harry was composed, but there was no
mistaking the perturbation of the Imp and Mr Neeld.

"A big price?" she asked wonderingly. "Isn't that a queer compliment,
Harry?" Then a light seemed to break in on her, and she cried: "You mean
the cost of your pride? I should never let that stand between you and
me!"

"Will you make a note of that admission, Mina?" said Harry with a smile.
"Because you didn't say so always, Cecily. Do you recollect what you
once said? 'If ever the time comes, I shall remember!' That was what
you said."

She looked at him with a glance that was suddenly troubled. There seemed
a meaning in his words. She pushed back her chair and rose from the
table.

"I don't want dinner. I'm going into the garden," she said.

They sat still as she went out. Harry refolded his napkin and slowly
rose to his feet. "I should have liked it better after dinner," he
observed.

Mina and Mr Neeld sat on.

"Are we to dine?" whispered Neeld. There is the body, after all.

"Oh, yes, sir," came in Mason's soothing tones over his shoulder. "We
never waited for her late Ladyship." And he handed soup.

"Really Mason is rather a comfort," thought Mr Neeld. The Imp drank a
glass of champagne.

XXIX

THE CURMUDGEON

In his most business-like tones, with no more gesture than a pointing of
his finger now and then, or an occasional wave of his hand, Harry
detailed the circumstances. He was methodical and accurate; he might
have been opening a case in the law-courts, and would have earned a
compliment on his lucidity. There was something ludicrous in this
treatment of the matter, but he remained very grave, although quite
unemotional.

"What was my position then?" he asked. "I remembered what you'd said. I
saw the pull I'd given you. If I'd told you before, you'd have had
nothing to do with me. You'd have taken a tragic delight in going back
to your little house. I should have given you your revenge."

"So you cheated me? It shows the sort of person you are!"

He went on as though he had not heard her indignant ejaculation.

"I had fallen in love with you--with you and with the idea of your being
here. I couldn't have anybody else at Blent, and I had to have you. It
was impossible for me to turn you out. I don't think it would have been
gentlemanly."

"It was mo