p off the river, and was deepening from pearly white to a lurid
brown. It pressed on the window-pane like a blanket, leaving dark,
damp rivulets on the glass.

"Awful!" said Derek,

"Your mater's train will be late."

"Yes. Damned nuisance. It's bad enough meeting trains in any case,
without having to hang about a draughty station for an hour."

"And it's sure, I should imagine," went on Freddie, pursuing his train
of thought, "to make the dear old thing pretty tolerably ratty, if she
has one of those slow journeys." He pottered back to the fireplace,
and rubbed his shoulders reflectively against the mantelpiece. "I take
it that you wrote to her about Jill?"

"Of course. That's why she's coming over, I suppose. By the way, you
got those seats for that theatre to-night?"

"Yes. Three together and one somewhere on the outskirts. If it's all
the same to you, old thing, I'll have the one on the outskirts."

Derek, who had finished his kedgeree and was now making himself a blot
on Freddie's horizon with toast and marmalade, laughed.

"What a rabbit you are, Freddie! Why on earth are you so afraid of
mother?"

Freddie looked at him as a timid young squire might have gazed upon
St. George when the latter set out to do battle with the dragon. He
was of the amiable type which makes heroes of its friends. In the old
days when he had fagged for him at Winchester he had thought Derek the
most wonderful person in the world, and this view he still retained.
Indeed, subsequent events had strengthened it. Derek had done the most
amazing things since leaving school. He had had a brilliant career at
Oxford, and now, in the House of Commons, was already looked upon by
the leaders of his party as one to be watched and encouraged. He
played polo superlatively well, and was a fine shot. But of all his
gifts and qualities the one that extorted Freddie's admiration in its
intensest form was his lion-like courage as exemplified by his
behaviour in the present crisis. There he sat, placidly eating toast
and marmalade, while the boat-train containing Lady Underhill already
sped on its way from Dover to London. It was like Drake playing bowls
with the Spanish Armada in sight.

"I wish I had your nerve!" he said awed. "What I should be feeling, if
I were in your place and had to meet your mater after telling her that
I was engaged to marry a girl she had never seen, I don't know. I'd
rather face a wounded tiger!"

"Idiot!" said Derek