w the quickest route from St. Wennys to
Clovelly--and the green car's nose had been set in quite a different
direction.

"She's fixed up to go out with me this afternoon," he said slowly.

"Tch!" Kitty clicked her tongue sharply against her teeth and,
crossing to the chimneypiece, took down a letter which, was resting
there. "I'd forgotten this! She left it to be given to you when you
called for her this afternoon. I wanted her to 'phone and put you off,
but she said you would understand when you'd read the letter and that
there was something she wanted you to do for her."

Sandy ripped open the envelope and his eyes flew down the page. Its
contents struck him like a blow--none the less hard because it had been
vaguely anticipated--and a half-stifled exclamation broke from him.

"Sandy dear"--it ran--"I'm going to vanish out of your life, but we've
been such good pals that I can't do it without just a word of good-bye,
not of justification--I know there's none for what I'm going to do.
But I know, too, that there'll be a little pity in your heart for me,
and that you, at least, will understand in a way why I've had to do
this, and won't blame me quite so much as the rest of the world. I'm
going away with Maryon, and by this afternoon, when you come to fetch
me for our motor spin, I shall have taken the first step on the new
road. Nothing you could have said would have altered my determination,
so you need never think that, Sandy boy. I know your first impulse
will be to put the 'stink-pot' along at forty miles an hour in wild
pursuit of me. But you can spare your petrol. Be very sure that even
if you overtook me, I shouldn't come back.

"I don't expect to find happiness, but life with Maryon can never be
dull. There'd never be anything to occupy my mind at Trenby--except
soup jellies. So it would just go running round and round in
circles--with the memory of all I've missed as the pivot of the circle.
I'm sure Maryon will at least be able to stop me from thinking in
circles. He's always flying off at a tangent--and naturally I shall
have to go flying after him.

"And now there's just one thing I want you still to do for me. _Tell
Kitty_. I couldn't leave a letter for her, as it might have been found
almost at once. You won't get this till you come over for me in the
afternoon, and by that time Maryon and I shall be far enough away.
Give Kitty all my love, and tell her I feel a beast to leave her