CHAPTER IX

Andrew came face to face with his brother in the village street on the
next morning. He looked at him for a moment in surprise.

"What have you been doing?" he asked, drily. "Sitting up all night?"

Cecil nodded dejectedly.

"Pretty well," he admitted. "We played bridge till nearly five o'clock."

"You lost, I suppose?" Andrew asked.

"Yes, I lost!" Cecil admitted.

"Your party," Andrew said, "does not seem to me to be an unqualified
success."

"It is not," Cecil admitted. "Miss Le Mesurier has been quite
unapproachable the last few days. She's just civil to me and no more.
She isn't even half as decent as she was in town. I wish I hadn't asked
them here. It's cost a lot more money than we can afford, and done no
good that I can see."

Andrew looked away seaward for a moment. Was it his fancy, or was there
indeed a slim white figure coming across the marshes from the Hall?

"Cecil," he said, "are you quite sure that your guests are worth the
trouble you have taken to entertain them? I refer more particularly to
the two men."

"They go everywhere," Cecil answered. "Lord Ronald is a bit of a
wastrel, of course, and I am not very keen on Forrest, but we were all
together when I gave the invitation, and I couldn't leave them out."

Andrew nodded.

"Well," he said, "I should be careful how I played cards with Forrest
if I were you."

Cecil's face grew even a shade paler.

"You do not think," he muttered, "that he would do anything that wasn't
straight?"

"On the contrary," Andrew answered, "I have reason to believe that he
would. Isn't that one of your guests coming? You had better go and meet
her."

Andrew passed on his way, and Cecil walked towards Jeanne. All the
time, though, she was looking over his shoulder to where Andrew's tall
figure was disappearing.

"What a nuisance!" she pouted. "I wanted to see Mr. Andrew, and
directly I came in sight he hurried away."

"Can I give him any message?" Cecil asked with faint irony. "He will no
doubt be up with the fish later in the day."

She turned her back on him.

"I am going back to the house," she said. "I did not come out here to
walk with you."

"Considering that I am your host," he began--

"You lose your claim to consideration on that score when you remind me
of it," she answered. "Really the only man who has not bored me for
weeks is Mr. Andrew. You others are all the same. You say the same
things, and you are alway