d to get the better of him. He had
lost self-control. He put his hands on his hips and went on laughing
harshly, yet sometimes with a real mirth, as if by that means only could
he express the fierce emotions that had been roused in him. Mortified
and furious as he was, he derived genuine and cynical amusement from the
incident.

"And the devotion that we have professed--think of it! and the union of
souls--ha, ha, ha! and the common interests and the deep sympathy--it is
screaming! Almost worth the price I pay, for the sake of the rattling
good joke! And by this grave! Great heavens, how humourous is destiny!"
He leant his arms on the tomb-stone and laughed on softly, his big form
shaking, his strange sinister face appearing over the stone, irradiated
with merriment. In the dusk, among the graves, the grinning face looked
like that of some mocking demon, some gargoyle come to life, to cast a
spell of evil over the place.

"Ah, me, life has its comic moments!" His eyes were streaming. "I fear I
must seem to you flippant, but you will admit the ludicrous side of the
situation. I am none the less ready to cut my throat--ha, ha, ha! Admit,
my dear Hadria--Mrs. Temperley--that it appeals also to _your_ sense of
humour. A common sense of humour, you know, was one of our bonds of
union. What more appropriate than that we should part with shaking
sides? Oh, Lord! oh, Lord! what am I to do? One can't live on a good
joke for ever."

He grasped his head in his hands; then suddenly, he broke out into
another paroxysm. "The feminine nature always the same, always, always;
infinitely charming and infinitely volatile. Delicious, and oh how
instructive!"

He slowly recovered calmness, and remained leaning on the gravestone.

"May I ask when this little change began to occur!" he asked presently.

"If you will ask in a less insolent fashion."

He drew himself up from his leaning attitude, and repeated the question,
in different words.

Hadria answered it, briefly.

"Oh, I see," he said, the savage gleam coming back to his eyes. "The
change in your feelings began when Fortescue appeared?"

Hadria flushed.

"It was when he appeared that I became definitely aware of that which I
had been struggling with all my might and main to hide from myself, for
a long time."

"And that was----?"

"That there was something in you that made me--well, why should I not
say it?--that made me shrink."

He set his lips.

"You have not me