are engaged. I thought I'd
tell you!"

He shut the door behind him.

6

They sat up, gaping at the closed door.

"What'd he say?" said Ninian.

"He says he's engaged to that blooming orator!" Gilbert answered.

"But, damn it, why?" said Ninian.

"And we've got the lease of this house for another two years!" Henry
exclaimed. "I suppose he'll want to get married and ... all that!"

They were silent for a while, contemplating this strange disruption of
their affairs.

"Of course, people do get engaged!" said Ninian, and then he relapsed
into silence.

"I've been in love myself," Gilbert said, "but ... this is excessive. We
ought to do something. Can't we get up a memorial or something?..."

Ninian sat upright, pointing a finger at them. "You know, chaps," he
exclaimed, "Roger's ashamed of himself. He didn't tell us 'til he'd got
to the door, and then he damn well hooked it!"

"He's been trapped," Gilbert said. "Females are always trapping
chaps!..."

"We ought to save him from himself!" Ninian stood up as he spoke.

"But supposing he doesn't want to be saved?" Henry asked.

"We'll save him all the same," Ninian answered.

"Let's go on a deputation to him," Gilbert suggested. "We will put it
reasonably to him. Well tell him that he mustn't do this thing.... Oh,
Lord, coves, it's no good. This house is doomed. A female has done it!"

"If it had been you, Gilbert, or Quinny," said Ninian, "I'd have thought
it was natural. You're that sort! But old Roger ... well, there's no
doubt about it, God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform.
Let's go to bed. I'm fed-up with everything!"

7

Henry switched off the light and got into bed. He shut his eyes and
tried to sleep, but sleep would not come to him. He lay blinking at the
ceiling for a while, and then he got up and went into his sitting-room
and got out his manuscript and began to write. He wrote steadily for
half-an-hour, and then he put down his pen and read over what he had
written.

"No," he said, crumpling the paper and throwing it into the wastepaper
basket, "that won't do!"

He walked about the room for a few minutes, and then he went back to
bed, and lay there with his hands clasped about his head.

"I don't see why I shouldn't get married myself," he said, and then he
went to sleep.

THE SEVENTH CHAPTER

1

In the morning, Ninian and Roger rose early, for Ninian was going to
Southampton to see the _Gigantic_ sta