such a base fool, as to have committed
himself to Leila on an evening when he had actually been in the company
of that child? Was it the vague, unseizable likeness between them which
had pushed him over the edge? 'I've been an ass,' he thought; 'a
horrible ass.' I would always have given every hour I've ever spent with
Leila, for one real smile from that girl.'

This sudden sight of Noel after months during which he had tried loyally
to forget her existence, and not succeeded at all, made him realise as he
never had yet that he was in love with her; so very much in love with her
that the thought of Leila was become nauseating. And yet the instincts
of a gentleman seemed to forbid him to betray that secret to either of
them. It was an accursed coil! He hailed a cab, for he was late; and
all the way back to the War Office he continued to see the girl's figure
and her face with its short hair. And a fearful temptation rose within
him. Was it not she who was now the real object for chivalry and pity?
Had he not the right to consecrate himself to championship of one in such
a deplorable position? Leila had lived her life; but this child's
life--pretty well wrecked--was all before her. And then he grinned from
sheer disgust. For he knew that this was Jesuitry. Not chivalry was
moving him, but love! Love! Love of the unattainable! And with a heavy
heart, indeed, he entered the great building, where, in a small room,
companioned by the telephone, and surrounded by sheets of paper covered
with figures, he passed his days. The war made everything seem dreary,
hopeless. No wonder he had caught at any distraction which came
along--caught at it, till it had caught him!

IV

1

To find out the worst is, for human nature, only a question of time. But
where the "worst" is attached to a family haloed, as it were, by the
authority and reputation of an institution like the Church, the process
of discovery has to break through many a little hedge. Sheer
unlikelihood, genuine respect, the defensive instinct in those identified
with an institution, who will themselves feel weaker if its strength be
diminished, the feeling that the scandal is too good to be true--all
these little hedges, and more, had to be broken through. To the
Dinnafords, the unholy importance of what Noel had said to them would
have continued to keep them dumb, out of self-protection; but its
monstrosity had given them the feeling that there m