that she was going to India, where she has
relatives. Her uncle's a judge, and she's several Army cousins married
out there."

"Do you mean she has never come back?" gasped Penelope.

"No. And I don't think she intends to if she can help it. She's the
most thoroughly selfish little beast of a woman I know, and cares for
nothing on earth except enjoyment. She's spoiled Peter's life for
him"--Kitty's voice shook a little--"and through it all he's been as
patient as one of God's saints."

"Still, they're better apart," commented Barry. "While she was living
with him she made a bigger hash of his life than she can do when she's
away. She was spoiling his work as well as his life. And old Peter's
work means a lot to him. He's still got that left out of the wreckage."

"Yes," agreed Kitty, "and of course he's writing better than ever now.
Everyone says _Lindley's Wife_ is a masterpiece."

Nan had been very silent during this revelation of Mallory's
unfortunate domestic affairs. The discovery that he was already
married came upon her as a shock. She felt stunned. Above all, she
was conscious of a curious sense of loss, as though the Peter she had
just began to know had suddenly receded a long way off from her and
would never again be able to draw nearer.

When the Seymours' car at length bore the two girls back to Edenhall
Mansions, Penelope found Nan an unwontedly silent companion. She
responded to Penny's remarks in monosyllables and appeared to have
nothing to say regarding the evening's happenings.

Mingled with the even throb of the engine, she could hear a constant
iteration of the words:

"Married! Peter's married!"

And she was quite unconscious that in her mind he was already thinking
of him as "Peter."

CHAPTER V

"PREUX CHEVALIER"

In due course Mallory paid his call upon the occupants of the flat, and
entertained both girls immensely by the utter lack of
self-consciousness with which he assisted in the preparations for
tea--toasting scones and coaxing the kettle to boil as naturally as
they themselves would have done.

He had none of the average Englishman's _mauvaise honte_--though be it
thankfully acknowledged that, in the case of the younger generation,
the experiences of the war have largely contributed towards rubbing it
off. Mallory appeared serenely unconscious of any incongruity in the
fact of a man whose clothes breathed Savile Row and whose linen was
immaculate as onl