rather difficult to know what they're driving at."

"Oh, all right!" Owen's flippancy disturbed Barry, and he spoke shortly,
whereupon Owen smiled meaningly, and Barry went out of the room rather
hurriedly.

Once safe in his own sanctum he lamented the unkind Fate which had given
Owen's heart as a plaything into the hands of an unscrupulous woman such
as Miss Rees had proved herself to be. Although Owen rarely mentioned
the subject, Barry knew well enough that he had not relinquished the
idea of a speedy marriage. Once or twice Owen had asked him his opinion
of this or that woman with whom they were both acquainted; but so far he
had shown no signs of forming any new engagement, though Barry lived in
a state of apprehension lest his friend should suddenly announce a more
or less undesirable tie.

For Owen, perhaps naturally, shunned the women of his own set. They all
knew too much, knew the history of his disastrous engagement too
well--were, in many cases, friends of the woman who had jilted him; and
were therefore no acquaintances for a man in his mood.

But there were other women, with whom, before his departure for the
East, he had been on terms of casual acquaintance; the daughters of City
friends, girls who lived in Kensington or Hampstead, girls with brothers
who had knocked up against the young men in athletic or journalistic
circles; an actress or two; good-hearted, ordinary young women for the
most part, commonplace in spite of suburban leanings towards "culture,"
and in many cases entirely out of sympathy with the aims and ideals of
both Owen and his friend.

As a matter of fact Owen and Barry were too busy during these strenuous
days to have time for social delights; but now and then they met one or
other of these various girls, visited one of the actresses on a "first
night," dined, reluctantly, in Earl's Court or Belsize Road, and on the
following morning Owen would ask Barry, half-teasingly, whether Rose or
Sybil or Gwendoline struck him as the most suitable bride for an already
jilted bachelor.

Barry never took up the subject, showed plainly by his manner that he
did not like the jest; but the occasional queries went to show that the
idea of marriage was still in his friend's thoughts; and Barry was now
and again seriously uneasy lest some designing woman--that was the way
he put it--should make the vague possibility into an accomplished fact.

And then, just when the idea seemed to be fading, l