nsisted she must marry him. Deep down in her there was an
innate sense of right and honesty, and she realized that the fact that
he was not the man she had once imagined him to be did not release her.
It was clear that, if he was about to commit a cruel and unjustifiable
action, she was the one person of all others whose part it was to
restrain him.

The color was a little plainer in her face than usual when she entered
the room where he lay, pipe in hand, in a lounge chair. His attitude of
languid ease irritated her. She had seen that there were several things
outside which should have had some claim on his attention. A litter of
letters and papers lay upon a little table at his side, but the fact
that he could not reach them as he lay was suggestive. He did not notice
her entrance immediately. He rose, when he saw her, and came forward
with outstretched hand.

"I didn't hear you," he said. "This is a pleasure I scarcely
anticipated."

Agatha sat down in the chair that he drew out for her near the stove. He
noticed that she glanced at the papers on the table, and he laughed.

"Bills, and things of that kind. They've been worrying me for a week or
two," he said lightly. He seized the litter, and bundling it together
flung it into an open drawer, which he shut with a snap. "Anyway, that's
the last of them for to-day. I'm awfully glad you drove over."

Agatha smiled. The action was so characteristic of the man. She had once
found no fault with Gregory's careless habits, and his way of thrusting
a difficulty into the background had appealed to her. It had suggested
his ability to straighten out the trouble when it appeared advisable.
Now she told herself that she would not be absurdly hypercritical, and,
as it happened, he had given her the lead that she desired.

"I should think that you would have had to give them more attention as
wheat is going down," she remarked.

Hawtrey looked at her with an air of reproach. "It must be nearly three
weeks since I have seen you, and now you expect me to talk of farming."
He made a rueful gesture. "If you quite realized the situation it would
be about the last thing you would ask me to do."

Agatha was astonished to remember that three weeks had actually elapsed
since she had last met him, and they had only exchanged a word or two
then. He had certainly not obtruded himself upon her, for which she was
grateful.

"Nobody is talking about anything except the fall in prices ju