s."

"Twice."

"No; three times. The third time--" He paused.

"Well?"

"I spent the afternoon with her to-day," said the Major sheepishly,
"while you were at Donard with the judge."

"I don't wonder," said Meldon, "that you're ashamed of yourself. I
begin to see now why Simpkins has behaved in the extraordinary way he
has. I was inclined to blame him at first. In fact, I'm afraid I said
rather hard things about him. I admit now that I was wrong. Simpkins
couldn't and wouldn't go near her while you were there. It would have
been no use if he had. I must say, Major, you are a most difficult man
to work with. Here I've been sacrificing the whole of my short holiday
to carrying through a difficult negotiation for your benefit, and all
you do is to balk me at every turn, to fling obstacles in my way, to
foul every rope I'm trying to get a pull on. How can I marry Simpkins
to Miss King if you won't let him go near her?"

"She won't marry him, J. J.; so you may put the idea out of your head
once for all. She doesn't like him."

"I suppose," said Meldon, "that you spent the afternoon crabbing him;
saying all the evil you could think of about him. But you've wasted
your time. Miss King's views of marriage are entirely unconventional.
She doesn't marry her husbands with the intention of living with them.
The less she likes a man the more willing she is to marry him, because
she'll feel less compunction afterwards if she thoroughly detests her
husband to start with."

"She won't marry Simpkins, any how," said the Major obstinately.

"Did she tell you so?"

"Not in plain words. I gathered that she wouldn't from the way she
spoke of him."

"You've gathered, as you call it, so many entirely wrong things from
the way Miss King speaks, that you can place absolutely no reliance on
this impression of yours. You gathered, for instance, that she isn't
Mrs. Lorimer."

"I did."

"And you are wrong about that, so the chances are that you're wrong
about this too. I see no reason to alter my opinion that she will
marry and afterwards kill Simpkins as soon as ever she gets the chance."

CHAPTER XVI.

Major Kent, who was at heart a very kindly man, and had besides a
genuine affection for Meldon, repented during the night of his fit of
bad temper. He was sorry that he had grumbled about the spoiling of
his dinner. While he was shaving in the morning he made up his mind to
enter as sympathetically as p