ng before something
turned up, and then, with Jenny's own money the two could manage very
well. And Lord Talgarth could not live for ever; and Archie would do the
right thing, even if his father didn't.

* * * * *

It was after half-past four before he looked up at a glint of white and
saw Jenny standing at the drawing-room window. She stood there an
instant with a letter in her hand; then she stepped over the low sill
and came towards him across the grass, serene and dignified and
graceful. Her head was bare again, and the great coils of her hair
flashed suddenly as they caught a long horizontal ray from the west.

"Here it is," she said. "Will you direct it? I've told him everything."

Jack nodded.

"That's excellent!" he said. "It shall go to-night."

He glanced up at her and saw her looking at him with just the faintest
wistfulness. He understood perfectly, he said to himself: she was still
a little unhappy at not being allowed to send the letter herself. What a
good girl she was!

"Have some tea before you go?" she said.

"Thanks. I'd better not. They'll be wondering what's happened to me."

As he shook hands he tried to put something of his sympathy into his
look. He knew exactly how she was feeling, and he thought her splendidly
brave. But she hardly met his eyes, and again he felt he knew why.

As he opened the garden gate beyond the house he turned once more to
wave. But she was busy with the tea-things, and a black figure was
advancing briskly upon her from the direction of the study end of the
house.

CHAPTER VII

(I)

Life had been a little difficult for the Major for the last fortnight or
so. Not only was Frank's material and moral support lacking to him, but
the calls upon him, owing to Gertie's extreme unreasonableness, had
considerably increased. He had explained to her, over and over again,
with a rising intensity each time, how unselfishly he had acted
throughout, how his sole thought had been for her in his recent course
of action. It would never have done, he explained pacifically, for a
young man like Frank to have the responsibility of a young girl like
Gertie on his hands, while he (the Major) was spending a fortnight
elsewhere. And, in fact, even on the most economical grounds he had
acted for the best, since it had been himself who had been charged in
the matter of the tin of salmon, it would not have been a fortnight, but
more like two mon