an ours, no doubt!"

"Thanks. Yes, I haven't time to waste." His tone was equally cool. "Good
morning, Miss Wayne. 'Morning, Cheniston."

A moment later he had started his engine; and in yet another moment his
car was out of sight round the corner of the road.

CHAPTER VIII

After the episode in the wayside cottage on that showery morning of May
Anstice made no further attempt to avoid Iris Wayne.

The way in which she had received his story had lifted a weight off his
mind. She had not shrunk from him, as in his morbid distrust he had
fancied possible. Rather she had shown him only the sweetest, kindest
pity; and it seemed to him that on the occasion of their next meeting
she had greeted him with a new warmth in her manner which was surely
intended to convey to him the fact that she had appreciated the
confidence he had bestowed upon her.

Besides--like the rest of us Anstice was a sophist at heart--the
kindness with which Sir Richard Wayne had consistently treated him was
surely deserving of gratitude at least.

It would be discourteous, if nothing more, to refuse his invitations
save when the press of work precluded their acceptance; and so it came
about that Anstice once more entered the hospitable doors which guarded
Greengates, incidentally making the acquaintance of Lady Laura Wells,
Sir Richard's widowed sister, who kept house for him with admirable
skill, if at times with rather overbearing imperiousness.

Sir Richard, for all his years, was hale and hearty and loved a game of
tennis; so that when once Iris' wrist was healed there were many keenly
contested games during the long, light evenings--games in which Iris,
partnered either by Cheniston or Anstice, darted about the court like a
young Diana in her short white skirt and blouse open at the neck to
display the firm, round throat which was one of her greatest charms.

The antagonism between Anstice and Bruce Cheniston deepened steadily
during these golden summer days. Had they met in different
circumstances, had there been no question, however vague and undefined,
of rivalry between them, it is possible there would have been no
positive hostility in their mutual attitude. Any genuine friendship was
naturally debarred, seeing the nature of the memory they shared in
common; but it would have been conceivably possible for them to have met
and recognized one another's existence with a neutrality which would
have covered a real but harmless dis