pair of nutcrackers beside him. Then he raised his head and
looked Anstice squarely in the face.

"I am quite ready to believe that," he said slowly. "I can hardly
conceive any circumstances in which you would care to run the risk of a
meeting with me."

"Quite so." Something in Cheniston's manner made Anstice suddenly angry.
"Though I would ask you, in common fairness, to believe that my distaste
for such a meeting rises rather from my reluctance to remind you of the
past than from any acknowledgment that you have a right to resent my
presence."

Again Bruce Cheniston looked him in the face; and this time there was a
genuine surprise in his blue eyes.

"I don't think I have given you reason to suppose I resent meeting you,"
he said with a new note in his voice, a note of something more
definitely like hostility than he had hitherto permitted himself to
show. "Since you have started the subject I may say that as a rule one
doesn't greet as a brother the man who has robbed one of one's most
treasured possession--I'm speaking metaphorically, of course--but I
think you can hardly find fault with my--hesitation just now."

"Oh, you have been politeness itself," said Anstice, rather bitterly.
"And in return for your forbearance I will relieve you of my unwelcome
presence immediately. Luckily my profession makes it easy for me to
behave with what, in another man, would appear discourtesy."

He turned towards the door; but Bruce's voice arrested him midway.

"One moment, Dr. Anstice." His tone was less openly hostile. "Don't go
yet, please. There are still one or two things to be said between us.
Will you do me the favour of sitting down again and letting us talk a
little?"

"I don't see what good will come of it, but I'll stay if you wish."
Anstice returned to the table, and drawing out a chair--the one which
Iris had occupied during the meal--he sat down and lighted a cigarette
with a slightly defiant air.

"To begin with"--Cheniston spoke abruptly--"I gather you know my
sister's story--know the bitter injustice that has been done to her in
this damned place?"

Rather taken aback Anstice hesitated before replying, and Cheniston
continued without waiting for him to speak:

"I say you know it, because my sister has a code of honour which forbids
her welcoming to her house anyone who is ignorant of that horrible
chapter in her history. And since I find you here, not only as a doctor,
but as a friend, I gather you