nd at
the end of the road.

They took the main Portsmouth road, by way of Kingston, Cobham and
Ripley, until in the cold grey afternoon they descended the steep hill
through Guildford High Street, and crossing the bridge, instead of
continuing along the road to Portsmouth, bore to the right, past the
station, and up the steep wide road over that long hill, the Hog's Back,
whence a great misty panorama was spread out on either side of the
long, high-up ridge which in the sunshine gives such a wonderful view to
motorists on their way out of London southward.

Presently the car turned into the gravelled drive, and Hugh found
himself at Shapley.

In the chintz-hung, old-world morning-room, lit by the last rays of
the declining sun, for the sky had suddenly cleared, Mrs. Bond entered,
loud-voiced and merry.

"Why, Mr. Henfrey! I'm so awfully pleased to see you. Charles telephoned
to me that you were a bit out of sorts. So you must stay with me for
a little while--both of you. It's very healthy up here on the Surrey
hills, and you'll soon be quite right again."

"I'm sure, Mrs. Bond, it is most hospitable of you," Hugh said. "London
in these after the war days is quite impossible. I always long for the
country. Certainly your house is delightful," he added, looking round.

"It's one of the nicest houses in the whole county of Surrey, my boy,"
Benton declared enthusiastically. "Mrs. Bond was awfully lucky in
securing it. The family are unfortunately ruined, as so many others are
by excessive taxation and high prices, and she just stepped in at the
psychological moment."

"Well, I really don't know how to thank you sufficiently, Mrs. Bond,"
Hugh declared. "It is really extremely good of you."

"Remember, Mr. Henfrey, we are not strangers," exclaimed the handsome
woman. "Do you recollect when we met in Paris, and afterwards in
Biarritz, and then that night at the Carlton?"

"I recollect perfectly well. We met before the war, when one could
really enjoy oneself contentedly."

"Since then I have been travelling a great deal," said the woman. "I've
been in Italy, the South of Spain, the Azores, and over to the States. I
got back only a few months ago."

And so after a chat Hugh was shown to his room, a pretty apartment, from
the diamond-paned windows of which spread out a lovely view across to
Godalming and Hindhead, with the South Downs in the blue far away.

"Now you must make yourselves at home, both of you," the