afternoon! He's getting disgracefully fat. I'll
take him for a walk."

Relieved of Columbus' weight, she became suddenly and overpoweringly
aware of a dwindling of her strength. She said no word, but her face
must have betrayed her, for the next thing she knew was Saltash's arm
like a coiled spring about her, impelling her towards the grand
staircase.

"I'll take you to your room, _Juliette_," he said. "You might miss the
way by yourself. You're awfully tired, aren't you?"

It was absurd, but a curious desire to weep possessed her.

"Yes, I know," said Saltash, with his semi-comic tenderness. "Don't mind
me! I knew you'd come to it sooner or later. You're not used to playing
the sister of mercy are you, _ma mie_, though it becomes you--vastly
well."

"Don't, Charles!" she murmured faintly.

"My dear, I mean no harm," he protested, firmly leading her upwards. "I
am only--the friend in need."

She took him at his word though half against her will. He guided her up
the branching staircase to the gallery above, bringing her finally to a
tall oak door at the further end.

"Here is your chamber of sleep, _Juliette_! Now will you make me a
promise?"

She left his supporting arm with an effort. "Well, what is it?"

"That you will go to bed in the proper and correct way and sleep
till further notice," he said. "You can't go for ever, believe me.
And you need it."

He was looking at her with a softness of persuasion that sat so oddly on
his mischievous monkey-face that in spite of herself, with quivering
lips, she smiled.

"You're very good, Charles Rex," she said. "I wonder how much longer you
will manage to keep it up."

He bowed low. "Just as long as I have your exemplary example before me,"
he said. "Who knows? We may both fling our caps over the windmill before
we have done."

She shook her head, made as if she would enter the room, but paused. "You
will take care of Columbus?" she said.

"Every care," he promised. "If I fail to bring him back to you intact you
will never see my face again."

She had opened the door behind her, but still she paused. "Charles!"

Her voice held an unutterable appeal. A grin of sheer derision gleamed
for a second in his eyes and vanished. "They ring up from the Court every
day, _Juliette_. Presumably he gets the news by that channel. He has not
troubled to obtain it in any other way."

"How could he?" Juliet said, but her face was paler than before; it had a
grey look.