for the coffee
and buns, and she felt that she hated him for not guessing how she
suffered. She walked down to where the little car stood waiting. If
only he would be quick and take her back; she could do nothing till
she got back to Enmore, and each moment was so precious.

It seemed an eternity until Micky joined her. He avoided looking at
her, though he bent and wrapped the rug carefully over her knees
before he took his seat.

The other car with its two occupants had vanished down the road some
minutes since; only a small cloud of grey dust on the horizon showed
which way they had gone.

Micky drove back faster than he had come. Once or twice he looked down
at Esther with an anxious pucker between his eyes.

What had happened in those few minutes to make this sudden change? he
wondered.

She had been happy and smiling enough this morning; now all that he
could see of her face, half hidden in the big upstand collar of the
coat he had given her, were two piteous blue eyes staring steadily
ahead of her down the road.

They had gone some miles almost silently when he felt that he could
bear it no longer. He stopped the car almost savagely and turned in
his seat.

"What's the matter? What have I done now?" he asked roughly. "You
weren't like this when we came out. If I've done anything to annoy
you...."

She forced herself to laugh. It would be the last straw if she broke
down now.

"How absurd!" she said in a high-pitched voice. "Nothing is the
matter. I'm tired, that's all; I shall be glad to get home."

He was not satisfied.

"You're not telling me the truth," he said. His mind searched
anxiously back to the short time they had stayed in the inn. What
could have happened? They had seen nobody there except the two men
with the racing car.

"Those two fellows who came in--they didn't annoy you, or anything
like that, when I was out of the room?"

She shook her head.

"Of course not; they never spoke to me."

"If you won't tell me what I've done, how can I hope to put things
right?" he said.

It was always like this, he told himself savagely; one little step
onward and a dozen back. He did not speak again till they got home.

Esther got out of the car without waiting for him, and went on into
the house.

After a moment Micky followed.

Esther was in the hall; she turned to him impatiently.

"Every one is out," she said. "Miss Dearling and June are both out."

There was a sort of strain in h