other to know and each
endeavored to appear at ease.

Croyden gave in first. He threw his cigarette into his coffee cup, and
pushed his chair back from the table.

"It's no use, Colin!" he laughed. "You're trying to appear nonchalant,
and you're doing it very well, too, but you can't control your fingers
and your eyes--and neither can I, I fancy, though I've tried hard
enough, God knows! We are about all in! These four days of strain and
uncertainty have taken it all out of us. If I had any doubt as to my
affection for Elaine, it's vanished, now.----I don't say I'm fool
enough to propose to her, yet I'm scarcely responsible, at present. If
I were to see her this minute, I'd likely do something rash."

"You're coming around to it, gradually," said Macloud.

"Gradually! Hum! I don't know about the 'gradually.' I want to pull
myself together--to get a rein on myself--to--what are you smiling at;
am I funny?"

"You are!" said Macloud. "I never saw a man fight so hard against his
personal inclinations, and a rich wife. You don't deserve her!--if I
were Elaine, I'd turn you down hard, hard."

"Thank God! you're not Elaine!" Croyden retorted.

"And hence, with a woman's unreasonableness and trust in the one she
loves, she will likely accept you."

"How do you know she loves me?"

Macloud blew a couple of smoke rings and watched them sail upward.

"I suppose you're equally discerning as to Miss Carrington, and her
love for you," Croyden commented.

"I regret to say, I'm not," said Macloud, seriously. "That is what
troubles me, indeed. Unlike my friend, Geoffrey Croyden, I'm perfectly
sure of my own mind, but I'm not sure of the lady's."

"Then, why don't you find out?"

"Exactly what I shall do, when she returns."

"It's sure as fate!" said Croyden.

"Thanks! We each seem to be able to answer the other's uncertainty," he
remarked, calmly.

Presently, Macloud arose.

"I'm going over to Ashburton, and talk with the Captain a little--sort
of cheer him up. Come along?"

Croyden shook his head.

"Go on!" said he. "It's a very good occupation for you, sitting up to
the old gent. I'll give you a chance by staying away, to-night. Make a
hit with grandpa, Colin, make a hit with grandpa!"

"And you make a hit with yourself--get rid of your foolish theory, and
come down to simple facts," Macloud retorted, and he went out.

"Get rid of your foolish theory," Croyden soliloquized. "Well,
maybe--but _is_ it foolis