with the air of a man
in quandary. "It was an imperative call from Boston--and it puts me in a
most awkward position."

Farquaharson, sitting with the drawn brow of preoccupation, simulated
for his host's assertion no interest and offered no response, but
Conscience asked, "What is it, Eben?"

"It's a business matter but one that involves a duty to my associates. I
don't see how I can ignore it or decline to go."

"But why shouldn't you go?" inquired his wife, and immediately Eben
replied.

"Ordinarily I should, but Stuart says he must leave for New York to-day
and there are no servants on the place. You can't stay here absolutely
alone."

"I shall be all right," she declared, but her husband raised his hands
in a gesture of reasonable protest.

"I couldn't think of it," he insisted. "Why, it's a half-mile to the
nearest house. It wouldn't do."

Then with an urgency of manner he turned to Farquaharson.

"Stuart, I dislike greatly to ask you to change your plans--but you
realize the situation. Can't you put off leaving until to-morrow?"

The younger man turned slowly and his gaze was disconcertingly
piercing, as he asked, "Don't you regard that as a somewhat
unconventional suggestion--leaving Conscience here with no one but me?
What of Dame Grundy?"

Eben only laughed and arched his brows in amusement.

"Why, my dear boy, you're a member of the family, aren't you? Such a
question is the height of absurdity."

"Your faith is touching," retorted the visitor dryly, then he added:
"I'm sorry, but I must go this afternoon."

Before him rose the true proportions of the ordeal to which his host so
casually invited him, and from facing them he flinched with the honesty
of genuine apprehension.

After last night each hour spent here meant trusting under fire a
resolution attained only in a moment of something like exaltation. Such
an experiment seemed the rashness of sheer irresponsibility, and to
underestimate its danger was only recklessness.

Then he saw Conscience's eyes fixed musingly upon him and in them
brooded a confidence which he could not analyze or comprehend.

"I wouldn't urge it," went on Eben persistently, "if there were any
other solution--but there doesn't seem to be. So in spite of your
objections I believe you'll do as I ask, Stuart, even at the cost of
some inconvenience to yourself. In a way you can't refuse, my boy,
because until this morning you gave us no warning of this sudden
fligh