of this.

"Please stay till Hereford comes!" she entreated. "You will want to know
what he has done. Besides, I want you."

Archie yielded to pressure. No word was spoken by either in praise or
admiration of the man who had risked his life to save theirs. Somehow it
was a difficult subject between them.

Nearly two hours later Wingarde arrived on foot. He reported Archie's
man only slightly the worse for his adventure.

"It ought to have killed him," he said briefly. "But men of that sort
never are killed. I told him to drive back to stables. The horse was as
quiet as a lamb."

"And the boy?" Nina asked eagerly.

"Oh, the boy!" Wingarde said. "His case is more serious. He was taken to
the Wade Home. I went with him. I happen to know Wade."

"That's the West End physician," said Archie. "He calls himself Wade, I
know, when he wants to be _incog_."

"That's the man," said Wingarde. "But I am not acquainted with him as
the West End physician. He is purely a City acquaintance. Oh, are you
going, Neville? We shall see you again, I suppose?"

It was not cordially spoken. Archie coloured and glanced at Nina.

"You are coming to dinner, aren't you?" she said at once. "Please do! We
shall be alone. And you promised, didn't you?"

Archie hesitated for a moment. Wingarde was looking at him piercingly.

"I hope you won't allow my presence to interfere with any plans you may
have made for to-night's amusement," he remarked. "I shall be obliged to
go out myself after dinner."

Archie drew himself up. Wingarde's tone stung.

"You are very good," he said stiffly. "What do you say, Nina? Do you
feel up to the theatre?"

Nina's colour also was very high. But her eyes looked softer than usual.
She turned to her husband.

"Couldn't you come, too, for once, Hereford?" she asked. "We were
thinking of the theatre. It--it would be nice if you came too."

The falter in the last sentence betrayed the fact that she was nervous.

Wingarde smiled faintly, contemptuously, as he made reply.

"Really, that's very kind of you," he said. "But I am compelled to plead
a prior engagement. You will be home by midnight, I suppose?"

Archie made an abrupt movement. For a second he hovered on the verge of
an indignant outburst. The man's manner, rather than his words, was
insufferable. But in that second he met Wingarde's eyes, and something
he saw there checked him. He pulled himself together and somewhat
awkwardly took his leave.