to both of them. It left just three
weeks for action, and no more. What was to be done? Ailsa tried to get
another interview with Carew at once, and found he had had to ride to
some place twenty miles distant, and might not be back until the
morrow. So, in distress, she sought Henry Delcombe. What he had to
tell her was faintly reassuring. Carew had gone to see him after he
left Ailsa, and had asked for proofs of his heirship to the marquisate
of Toxeter. Delcombe had been able to satisfy him, and he had been
gravely friendly, but that was all. At last, in desperation, Ailsa
decided to write to Diana. The mail left that morning, and would reach
Johannesburg in three days. Diana was full of resource, and she might
think of a plan. Ailsa decided to tell her as much as she could
without betraying any confidence. She said no word of the tragedy.
That only concerned Meryl, and if she were to hear it at all, she must
hear it from him. Neither did she mention his changed position; that
also he should tell himself. She contented herself with letting Diana
know that he had admitted he loved Meryl.

In the meantime she waited anxiously for Carew to return, but heard no
word of him until the Sunday afternoon. In reply to an urgent little
note he came to see her. She had wondered if he would be changed at
all; if his new position would shed a ray of gladness in his steady
eyes. But he seemed exactly the same, and she could read nothing.

"Did you see the announcement yesterday?" she asked. "There is so
little time. I had to see you."

"I did."

"And what are you going to do?"

He looked down at the carpet, lost in thought. "I hardly know," he
said.

"O, won't you at least go to Johannesburg?..." she pleaded. "See Meryl
once. If you fail her now, perhaps you will never forgive yourself."

"On the other hand, I may only disturb her mind. How do you know she
has not cared for this man for a long time? In any case, what right
have I to cross _his_ path now?"

"O, your logic!..." she cried. "The way you men think this and that
and the other, when a woman just _knows_! Go and see her. Go and make
sure of things for yourself."

But he shook his head in doubt and perplexity. To him it seemed almost
like stealing to go and attempt to take from this other man what he
had won fairly and openly; and though Ailsa tried other arguments, she
could not move him. Only one half-hope she extracted from him.

"Perhaps," he said, "I will w