rd
he was in town, and examined him curiously as he sat alone in a corner,
making a pretence of reading a newspaper, but really looking across the
room at the fire with restless eyes. George, prepared as he had been,
was surprised by the haggard, flushed countenance, and the neurotic
symptoms, nearly uncontrollable.

Beyond question Dalrymple saw him, and pretended that he didn't.
Heartily glad of that, George joined a group about the fireplace, and
after a few minutes saw Dalrymple rise and wander unevenly from the
room.

George met him several times afterward under similar circumstances, and
always Dalrymple shortly disappeared, because, George thought, of his
arrival; but other people tactfully put him straight. Dalrymple, it
seemed, remained in no public place for long, as if there was something
evilly secretive to call him perpetually away.

Wandel told him toward the end of the month that Dalrymple was about to
make a trip to Havana for the remainder of the winter.

"Where there's horse-racing, gambling, and unlimited alcohol--where one
may sin in public. Why talk about it? Although he doesn't mean to,
George, he's in a fair way of doing you a favour."

But George didn't dream how close Dalrymple's offering was. His first
thought, indeed, was for Sylvia when the influenza epidemic of January
and February promised for a time to equal its previous ugly record.
Lambert tried to laugh his worry away.

"She's going south with father and mother very soon. Anyway, she hasn't
the habit of catching things."

And it was Lambert a day or two later who brought him the first
indication of the only way out, and he tried to tell himself he mustn't
want it. Even though he had always despised Dalrymple and his weakness,
even though Dalrymple stood between him and his only possible happiness,
he experienced a disagreeable and reluctant sense of danger in such a
solution.

"All his life," Lambert was saying, "Dolly's done everything he could to
make himself a victim."

"Where is he?" George asked.

"At his home. It's fortunate he hadn't started south."

"Or," George said, "he should have started sooner."

"I've an uncomfortable feeling," Lambert mused, "that he was planning to
run away from this very chance. Put it off a little too long. Seems he
went to bed four days ago. I didn't know until to-day because you see
he's been a little outcast since that scene in the club. He sent for me
this afternoon, and, curiously