it's all right for me to motor back with Mrs.
Dysart?"

"Are _you_ afraid?" asked Duane, smiling.

"Only on her account," said Grandcourt, so simply that a warm feeling
rose in Duane's heart for this big, ungainly, vividly coloured young
fellow whose direct and honest gaze always refreshed people even when
they laughed at him.

"Are you driving?" asked Duane.

"Yes. We came in at a hell of a clip. It made my hair stand, but Mrs.
Dysart likes it.... I say, Mallett, what sort of an outcome do you
suppose there'll be?"

"Between Rosalie and Jack Dysart?"

"Yes."

"I know no more than you, Grandcourt. Why?"

"Only that--it's too bad. I've known them so long; I'm friendly with
both. Jack is a curious fellow. There's much of good in him, Mallett,
although I believe you and he are not on terms. He is a--I don't mean
this for criticism--but sometimes his manner is unfortunate, leading
people to consider him overbearing.

"I understand why people think so; I get angry at him, sometimes,
myself--being perhaps rather sensitive and very conscious that I am not
anything remarkable.

"But, somehow"--he looked earnestly at Duane--"I set a very great value
on old friendships. He and I were at school. I always admired in him the
traits I myself have lacked.... There is something about an old
friendship that seems very important to me. I couldn't very easily break
one.... It is that way with me, Mallett.... Besides, when I think,
perhaps, that Jack Dysart is a trifle overbearing and too free with his
snubs, I go somewhere and cool off; and I think that in his heart he
must like me as well as I do him because, sooner or later, we always
manage to drift together again.... That is one reason why I am so
particular about his wife."

Another reason happened to be that he had been in love with her himself
when Dysart gracefully shouldered his way between them and married
Rosalie Dene. Duane had heard something about it; and he wondered a
little at the loyalty to such a friendship that this young man so
naively confessed.

"I'll tell you what I think," said Duane; "I think you're the best sort
of an anchor for Rosalie Dysart. Only a fool would mistake your
friendship. But the town's full of 'em, Grandcourt," he added with a
smile.

"I suppose so.... And I say, Mallett--may I ask you something more?... I
don't like to pester you with questions----"

"Go on, my friend. I take it as a clean compliment from a clean-cut
man."