r."

"You say that something has happened. Is it within my privilege to ask
what, or must I be content to know nothing more?"

"Constance, don't speak like that?" pleaded Dyce. "Be generous to the
end! Haven't I behaved very frankly all along? Haven't we talked with
perfect openness of all I did? Don't spoil it all, now at the critical
moment of my career. Be yourself, generous and large-minded!"

"Give me the opportunity," she answered, with an acid smile. "Tell what
you have to tell."

"But this is not like yourself," he remonstrated. "It's a new spirit. I
have never known you like this."

Constance moved her foot, and spoke sharply.

"Say what you have to say, and never mind anything else."

Lashmar bent his brows.

"After all, Constance, I am a perfectly free man. If you are annoyed
because I wish to put an end to what you yourself recognise as a mere
pretence, it's very unreasonable, and quite unworthy of you."

"You are right," answered the other, with sudden change to ostentatious
indifference. "It's time the farce stopped. I, for one, have had enough
of it. If you like, I will tell Lady Ogram myself, this morning."

"No!" exclaimed Dyce, with decision. "That I certainly do _not_ wish.
Are you resolved, all at once, to do me as much harm as you can?"

"Not at all, I thought I should relieve you of a disagreeable business."

"If you really mean that, I am very grateful. I wanted to tell you
everything, and talk it over, and see what you thought best to be done.
But of course I shouldn't dream of forcing my confidence upon you. It's
a delicate matter and only because we were such intimate friends."--

"If you will have done with all this preamble," Constance interrupted,
with forced calm, "and tell me what there is to be told, I am quite
willing to listen."

"Well, I will do so. It's this. I am in love with May Tomalin, and I
want to marry her."

Their eyes met, Dyce was smiling, an uneasy, abashed smile. Constance
wore an expression of cold curiosity, and spoke in a corresponding
voice.

"Have you asked her to do so?"

"Not yet," Lashmar replied.

For a moment, Constance gazed at him; then she said, quietly:

"I don't believe you."

"That's rather emphatic," cried Dyce, affecting a laugh. "It conveys my
meaning. I don't believe you, for several reasons. One of them is--"
She broke off, and rose from her chair. "Please wait; I will be back in
a moment."

Lashmar sat looking about the room