on before the night came on
him--the night that might be endless. It was not so easy, now that an
imaginary _fiancee_ had been curtly swept away, to fight against a
temptation he conceived himself bound in honour not to give way to. Not
so easy because _something_, that he hoped was not his vanity, was
telling him that this girl beside him, her very self that he had seen
once, whose image was to last for ever, was at least not placing
obstacles in his way. For anything that _she_ was doing to prevent it,
he might drive a coach-and-six through the social code that blocks a
declaration of passion to a girl under age without the consent of her
parents. He was conscious of this code, and his general acceptance of
it. But he was not so law-abiding but that he must needs get on the
box--of the coach-and-six--and flick the leaders with his whip.

For he asked abruptly:--"How do you know that?" driving home the nail of
personality to the head.

"Perhaps I am wrong," said Gwen, dropping her flag an inch. "But I was
thinking so all last night. I was in a sort of fever, you see, because I
felt so guilty, and it grew worse and worse...."

"You were thinking that...?"

"Well--you know--it was before I had any idea she was a hypothesis. I
thought she was real because of the ring."

"My ring! Fancy!... But I'll tell you about my ring presently. Tell me
what you were thinking...."

"Why--what I said before!"

"But what _was_ it?"

"Do you know, I think it was only a sort of attempt to get a little
sleep. You were so fearfully on my conscience, and it made it so much
easier to bear.... Only it worried me to think that perhaps she might
turn round and say:--'This was no fault of mine. Why should I bear for
life the burden of other people's sins?' ... If she was a perfect
beast--_beast_, you know!..."

"The hypothesis would not have been a perfect beast. She would have been
a perfect lady, and Mrs. Bailey would have attested it. She would have
pointed out the desirability of a sister's love--at reasonable
intervals; visits and so on--for a man with his eyes poked out. She
might even have gone the length of insinuating that the finger of
Providence did it...."

"Now you are talking nonsense again. Do be serious!"

"Well--let's be serious! Suppose you tell me what it was you were
thinking that made the existence of that very dry and unsatisfying
hypothesis such a consolation!"

"I should like to tell you--only I know I shall