emote, sheltering his soul.

"Go ahead!" said Bernard gently.

Everard paused for a second. "You have asked no promise of me," he said
then; "but--I'll make you one. And I want one from you in return."

Again he paused, as if he had some difficulty in finding words.

"You can rely on me," Bernard said.

"Yes, old fellow." For an instant his eyes smiled also. "I know it. It's
by that fact alone that you've gained your point. And so I'll hang on
somehow for the present--find another way--anyhow hang on, just because
you are what you are--and because--" his voice sank a little--"you
care."

"Don't you know I love you before any one else in the world?" Bernard
said, giving him a mighty grip.

"Yes," Everard looked him straight in the face, "I do. And it means more
to me than perhaps you think. In fact--it's everything to me just now.
That's why I want you to promise me--whatever happens--whatever I decide
to do--that you will stay within reach of--that you will take care
of--my--my--of Stella." He ended abruptly, with a quick gesture that
held entreaty.

And Bernard's reply came instantly, almost before he had ceased to
speak. "Before God, old chap, I will."

"Thanks," Everard said again. He stood for a few moments as if debating
something further, but in the end he freed himself and turned away. "She
will be all right, with you," he said. "You're--safe anyhow."

"Quite safe," said Bernard steadily.

PART V

CHAPTER I

GREATER THAN DEATH

"If you ask me," said Bertie Oakes, propping himself up in an elegant
attitude against a pillar of the Club verandah, "it's my belief that
there's going to be--a bust-up."

"Nobody did ask you," observed Tommy rudely.

He generally was rude nowadays, and had been haled before a subalterns'
court-martial only the previous evening for that very reason. The
sentence passed had been of a somewhat drastic nature, and certainly had
not improved his temper or his manners. To be stripped, bound
scientifically, and "dipped" in the Club swimming-bath till, as Oakes
put it, all the venom had been drenched out of him, was an experience
for which only one utterly reckless would qualify twice.

Tommy had come through it with a dumb endurance which had somewhat
spoilt the occasion for his tormentors, had gone back to The Green
Bungalow as soon as his punishment was over, and for the first time had
drunk heavily in the privacy of his room.

He sat now in a huddled position