em caused Columbus to start and
jump from his perch to investigate.

Then Juliet, very quiet of mien and level of brow, got up and went to
Dick who had risen at the departure of the visitor. She put her hand
through his arm and held it closely.

"You are not to be unkind to my friends, Richard," she said. "It is the
one thing I can't allow."

He looked at her with some sternness, but his free hand closed at once
upon hers. "I hate to think of you on terms of intimacy with that
bounder," he said.

She smiled a little. "I know you do. But you are prejudiced. I can't give
up an old friend--even for you, Dick."

He squeezed her hand. "Have you got many friends like that, Juliet?"

She flushed. "No. He is the only one I have, and--"

"And?" he said, as she stopped.

She laid her cheek with a very loving gesture against his shoulder.
"Ah, don't throw stones!" she pleaded gently. "There are so few of us
without sin."

His arm was about her in a moment, all his hardness vanished. "My own
girl!" he said.

She held his hand in both her own. "Do you know--sometimes--I lie awake
at night and wonder--and wonder--whether you would have thought of
me--if you had known me in the old days?"

"Is that it?" he said very tenderly. "And you thought I was sleeping like
a hog and didn't know?"

She laughed rather tremulously, her face turned from him. "It isn't
always possible to bury the past, is it, however hard we try? I hope
you'll make allowances for that, Dick, if ever I shock your sense of
propriety."

"I shall make allowances," he said, "because you are the one and only
woman I worship--or have ever worshipped--and I can't see you in any
other light."

"How dear of you, Dicky!" she murmured. "And how rash!"

"Am I such an unutterable prig?" he said. "I feel myself that I have got
extra fastidious since knowing you."

She laughed at that, and after a moment turned with impulsive sweetness
and put her cigarette between his lips. "You're not a prig, darling. You
are just an honourable and upright gentleman whom I am very proud to
belong to and with whom I always feel I have got to be on my best
behaviour. What have you been doing all this time? I should have come to
look for you if Saltash hadn't turned up."

Dick's brows were slightly drawn. "I've been talking to Jack," he said.

"Jack!" She opened her eyes. "Dick! I hope you haven't been quarrelling!"

He smiled at her anxious face, though somewhat grimly. "My