ear upon you, and you alone. He doesn't dare
to face your father or your brothers."

Cicely had sunk down into her chair again. Her head was bent, but her
eyes were dry now. Mackenzie had listened to him with his face set and
his lips pressed together. What he thought of the damaging indictment,
whether it showed him his actions in a fresh light, or only heightened
his resentment, nobody could have told. "Have you finished what you have
to say?" he asked.

"Not quite," replied Dick. "Listen to me, Cicely."

"Yes, and then listen to me," said Mackenzie.

"What sort of treatment do you think you're going to get from a man who
has behaved like that? He's ready to give you a hole-and-corner
marriage. He wants you for the moment, and he'll do anything to get you.
He'll get tired of you in a few weeks, and then he'll go off to the
other side of the world and where will _you_ be? How much thought has he
given to _your_ side of the bargain? He's ready to cut you off from your
own people--_he_ doesn't care. He takes you from a house like Kencote
and brings you here. He's lied to Jim, who treated him like a friend,
and he's behaved like a cad to us who let him into our house. He's done
all these things in a few days. How are you going to spend your life
with a fellow like that?"

Cicely looked up. Her face was firmer, and she spoke to Mackenzie. "We
had begun to talk about all these things," she said. "I asked you a
question which you didn't answer. Did you know when you told me you were
going back to Tibet in a fortnight and there wasn't time to--to ask
father for me, that you weren't going until next year?"

"No, I didn't," said Mackenzie.

"When did he tell you that?" asked Dick.

"On Sunday."

"I can find that out for you easily enough. I shouldn't take an answer
from him."

Again, for a fraction of a second, Mackenzie's face was deadly, but he
said quietly to Cicely, "I have answered your question. Go on."

"You know why I did what you asked me," she said. "I thought you were
offering me a freer life and that I should share in all your travels and
dangers. You told me just before my brother came in that you didn't want
me for that."

"I told you," said Mackenzie, speaking to her as if no one else had been
in the room, "that you _would_ have a freer life, but that I shouldn't
risk your safety by taking you into dangerous places. I told you that I
would do all that a man could do to protect and honour his chosen