that
at any moment the darkness might come down anew; and while, I dwelt on
this speculation precisely as a man torments a raging tooth with his
tongue, it ebbed away into the little grey shadow on the brain of its
first coming, and once more I heard my brain, which knew what would
recur, telegraph to every quarter fox help, release or diversion.

The door opened, and M'Leod reappeared. I thanked him politely, saying
I was charmed with my room, anxious to meet Mrs. M'Leod, much refreshed
with my wash, and so on and so forth. Beyond a little stickiness at
the corners of my mouth, it seemed to me that I was managing my words
admirably; the while that I myself cowered at the bottom of unclimbable
pits. M'Leod laid his hand on my shoulder, and said "You've got it now
already, ain't it?"

"Yes," I answered. "It's making me sick!"

"It will pass off when you come outside. I give you my word it will then
pass off. Come!"

I shambled out behind him, and wiped my forehead in the hall.

"You musn't mind," he said. "I expect the run tired you. My good lady is
sitting there under the copper beech."

She was a fat woman in an apricot-coloured gown, with a heavily powdered
face, against which her black long-lashed eyes showed like currants
in dough. I was introduced to many fine ladies and gentlemen of those
parts. Magnificently appointed landaus and covered motors swept in and
out of the drive, and the air was gay with the merry outcries of the
tennis players.

As twilight drew on they all went away, and I was left alone with Mr.
and Mrs. M'Leod, while tall menservants and maidservants took away the
tennis and tea things. Miss M'Leod had walked a little down the drive
with a light-haired young man, who apparently knew everything about
every South American railway stock. He had told me at tea that these
were the days of financial specialisation.

"I think it went off beautifully, my dear," said Mr. M'Leod to his wife;
and to me: "You feel all right now, ain't it? Of course you do."

Mrs. M'Leod surged across the gravel. Her husband skipped nimbly before
her into the south verandah, turned a switch, and all Holmescroft was
flooded with light.

"You can do that from your room also," he said as they went in. "There
is something in money, ain't it?"

Miss M'Leod came up behind me in the dusk. "We have not yet been
introduced," she said, "but I suppose you are staying the night?"

"Your father was kind enough to ask me," I