a space in silence, waiting for him to recover himself. He
knew very well that he had good reason for his rooted dislike for Jack.
It was useless to attempt any argument on that point. But when Robin had
grown calmer, he returned to the charge very quietly but with
determination.

"What has Jack been doing or saying? Tell me! I've got to know."

Robin stirred uneasily. "Don't want to tell you, Dicky," he said.

Dick's hand pressed a little upon him. "You must tell me," he said. "When
did you meet him?"

Robin hesitated in obvious reluctance. "It was after supper," he said.
"My head ached, and I went outside, and he came down the drive. And
he--and he laughed about--about you coming home alone from Burchester,
and said--said that your game was up anyhow. And I didn't know what he
meant, Dicky--" Robin's arms suddenly clung closer--"but I got angry,
because I hate him to talk about you. And I--I went for him, Dicky." His
voice dropped on a shamed note, and he became silent.

"Well?" Dick said gravely. "What happened then?"

Very unwillingly Robin responded to his insistence. "He got hold of
me--so that I couldn't hurt him--and then he said--he said--" A great sob
rose in his throat choking his utterance.

"What did he say?"

There was a certain austerity in Dick's question. Robin shivered as it
reached him.

With difficulty he struggled on. "Said that only--a fool--like
me--could help knowing that--you hadn't--a chance--with any woman--so
long as--so long as--" He choked again and sank into quivering silence.

Dick's hand found the rough head and patted it very tenderly. "But you're
not fool enough to take what Jack says seriously, are you?" he said.

Robin stifled a sob. "He said that--afterwards," he whispered. "And he
took me along to The Three Tuns--to make me forget it."

"You actually drank with him after that!" Dick said.

"I didn't know what I was doing, Dicky," he make apologetic answer.
"It--knocked the wind out of me. You see, I--I'd never thought of
that before."

He began to whimper again. Dick swallowed down something that tried to
escape him.

"A bit of an ass, aren't you, Robin?" he said instead. "You know as well
as I do that there isn't a word of truth in it. Anyhow--the woman I
love--isn't--that sort of woman."

Robin shifted his position uneasily. There was that in the words that
vaguely stirred him. Dick had never spoken in that strain before. Slowly,
with a certain caution, he lif