mes to
two people who love with their whole hearts and who have been trying to
speak some of their thoughts to each other--a silence that stood between
them almost as it were with a drawn sword, while Dick puffed at his pipe
and Mabel stared at her white hands, showing up against the darkness of
her dress. Then finally she moved, standing up, and just for a second
their eyes met.

"Good-night," she said across the silence, "it is late, Dick, I meant to
be in bed ages ago."

"Good-night," he answered, and she turned quickly and went from the
room.

Mrs. Grant kept everyone, including herself, in a state of unexplained
fuss from the moment when early morning light woke her on the day of
Mabel's marriage till the moment when, much to Dick's embarrassment, she
collapsed into his arms, sobbing bitterly, in the vestry where they had
all gone to sign their names.

At the reception she slightly recovered her spirits, but broke down
again when the time came for the couple to depart. They were going to
Paris for a fortnight's honey-moon; Mabel had stipulated that they
should not be away for longer than that. Jarvis Hall was ready for their
return; already Mrs. Grant was using one of the motors and ordering
crested paper with the address on it for her own letters. But Dick,
Mabel knew, was simply aching to be quit of it all, and away on his own.
He had arranged to hand over the practice and proposed to take a two
years' trip abroad. It was only in the complete freedom of Dick that she
would know that part of her plan was being fulfilled.

When she drew back her head after the final farewells had been waved and
the house was out of sight it was to meet Jarvis' intent, short-sighted
stare. His glasses magnified the pupils of his eyes to an unusual extent
when he was looking straight at anyone.

"Well," he said, "that's done. Till the last moment, Mabel, I rather
wondered if you would go through with it. But I might have known," he
went on quickly, "you are not the sort to shrink from a bargain once it
is made."

Her hand lay passive in his, she did not even stir when he leaned
forward to kiss her. What he had said was perfectly true, the bargain
had been made, she was not one of those who shirk payment.

CHAPTER X

"And you shall learn how salt his food who fares
Upon another's bread; how steep his path,
Who treadeth up and down another's stairs."

D. G.