had feared him before, she hated him now with
the whole force of her nature.

He seemed to be blissfully unconscious of her hostility and played the
part of host with complete ease of manner. Long before the meal was
over, Grange had put aside his sullenness, and they were conversing
together as comrades.

Nick had plenty to say. He spoke quite openly of his illness, and
declared himself to have completely recovered from it. "Even Jim has
ceased his gruesome threats," he said cheerily. "There will be no more
lopping of branches this season. Just as well, for I chance to have
developed an affection for what is left."

"You're going back to the Regiment, I suppose?" Blake questioned.

"No, he isn't," thrust in Olga, and was instantly frowned upon by
Nick.

"Speak when you're spoken to, little girl! That's a question you are
not qualified to answer. I'm on half-pay at present, and I haven't
made up my mind."

"I should quit in your place," Grange remarked, with his eyes on the
dazzling sea.

"No doubt you would," Nick responded dryly. "And what should you
advise, Muriel?"

The question was unexpected, but she had herself in hand, and answered
it instantly. "I certainly shouldn't advise you to quit."

He raised his eyebrows. "Might one ask why?"

She was quite ready for him, inspired by an overmastering longing
to hurt him if that were possible. "Because if you gave up your
profession, you would be nothing but a vacuum. If the chance to
destroy life were put out of your reach, you would simply cease to
exist."

She spoke rapidly, her voice pitched very low. She was trembling all
over, and her hands were clenched under the table to hide it.

The laugh with which Nick received her words jarred intolerably upon
her. She heard nothing in it but deliberate cruelty.

"Great Lucifer!" he said. "You have got me under the microscope with
a vengeance. But you can't see through me, you know. I have a reverse
side. Hadn't you better turn me over and look at that? There may be
sorcery and witchcraft there as well."

There might be. She could well have imagined it. But these were lesser
things in which she had no concern. She turned his thrust aside with
disdain.

"I am not sufficiently interested," she said. "The little I know is
enough."

"Well hit!" chuckled Nick. "I retire from the fray, discomfited. Olga
_mia_, I wish you would find the cigars. You know where they are."

Olga sprang to do his bidding. Having