ntained Bunny.
"And of course it's rot to talk like that about Maud. You can't pretend
to have stayed in love with her all these years. There must have been
heaps of others since then."

"No, I'm not pretending," said Saltash. "As you say, there have
been--heaps of others." He made an odd gesture towards the western sky
behind him. "There are always--heaps of stars, Bunny; but there's never
more than one moon."

"Rot!" said Bunny.

"It is, isn't it?" said Saltash, and laughed with brief derision. "Well,
I must get on. You can do the receiving if I'm late. Tell them I've been
in town and only got back at mid-day! You needn't bother about Larpent.
I'll see to him."

He flicked his horse's neck and was off with the words.

Bunny, striding after, watched him ride swiftly up the slope till the
fir-trees of the avenue hid him from view.

"Queer fish!" he murmured to himself. "Very queer fish!"

He entered the Castle a little later by the great stone hall and found it
lighted from end to end as if in preparation for a reception. He had
known the place for years, but it always struck him afresh with its
magnificence. It looked like a palace of kings. There were some beautiful
pieces of statuary both in marble and bronze, and upon each of these a
shaded light shone.

At the end of the hall a wide oak staircase that branched mid-way led to
an oak gallery that ran round three sides of the hall, and where it
divided a high door stood open, showing a lighted room beyond. Bunny left
his coat with the silent-stepping butler and went straight up the
shallow stairs.

He entered the stately apartment at the top expecting to find it empty.
It was the drawing-room--a vast and lofty chamber with satin-covered
walls, superbly furnished with old French furniture in royal blue velvet
and gilt. There was a further room beyond, but Bunny did not pursue his
way thither, for a man in evening-dress turned suddenly from one of the
great southward-facing windows and moved to meet him.

He was a gaunt man with a trim beard and the eyes of the sea-farer, and
he walked with a slight roll as if accustomed to pitching decks.

"Sir Bernard Brian?" he said.

Bunny held out his hand. "You're Captain Larpent, of course. I wonder
we've never met before. I've heard of you often enough. Sorry you had
such bad luck with _The Night Moth."_

"Oh, damnable luck!" said the sailor gloomily.

"Still you came out of it alive," said Bunny consolingly. "