he fired off
what Ranny supposed to be the usual questions.

"Had any shock, worry, or excitement lately?

"Been overdoing it in any way?

"Gone in much for athletics?"

Ranny replied with regret that it was more than three years since he had
last run in the Wandsworth Hurdle Race.

He was then told that he must avoid all shock, worry, or excitement. He
mustn't overdo it. He must drop his hurdle-racing. He mustn't bicycle
uphill, or against the wind; he mustn't jump; he mustn't run--

"Not even to catch a train?"

"Not to catch anything."

And the doctor gave him a prescription that ran:

/P
Sodae Bicarb., one dram.
Tinct. Strophanthi, two drams--
P/

He remembered. That was the stuff he'd measured for old Mr. Beasley's
heart mixture. It was the stuff that Ponting said his father was taking
now.

If any one had told him three years ago that his heart was rocky he'd
have told them where to go to. It had been as sound as a bell when he
entered for the Poly. Gym.

Well, he supposed that was about the finishing touch--if they wanted to
do the thing in style.

He went slowly over Wandsworth Bridge and up the High Street, dejected,
under the autumn moon that had once watched his glad sprinting.

CHAPTER XXVII

And in all this time he had not heard again from Violet, nor had he
written to her.

Then--it was in the first week of November--Violet wrote.

She wrote imploring him to set her free. It was rooted in her, the fear
that he would compel her to come back, that he had the power to make
her. She wanted (he seemed to see it) to feel safe from him forever.
Leonard had promised to marry her if she were free. She intimated that
Leonard was everything that was generous and honorable. She wanted (she
who had abused him so for having married her), she wanted to marry
Mercier, to have a hold on him and be safe. Marriage was her idea of
safety now.

She went on to say that if he would consent to divorce her, it would be
made easy for him, she would not defend the suit.

That meant--he puzzled it out--that meant that it would lie between the
two of them. Nobody else would be dragged into it. Winny's name would
not by any possibility be dragged in. Violet would have no use for
Winny, since she was not going to defend the suit. She might--at the
worst--have to appear as witness, if the evidence of Violet's letters
(her own admission) was not sufficient. It looked as if it would be
simple e