enly. "Go, by all means, John. I am
simply a little idiot when I give way for a moment to such poisonous
thoughts. Lady Hilda can say what she likes about anybody or anything.
It really doesn't matter at all whether you go to Bourne End or not."

"I don't quite understand you," John confessed; "but if you mean that
you are afraid of anything Lady Hilda might say to me about you, why, I
feel inclined to laugh at you. Lady Hilda," he added, with a touch of
intuition, "is far too clever a woman to make such a mistake."

"I believe you are right," Louise agreed. "I shall pin my faith to Lady
Hilda's cleverness and to your--fidelity. Go and spend your week-end
there, by all means. I only wish I wasn't bound to go to the Faradays',
but that can't possibly be helped. Come and lunch with me on Monday,"
she added impulsively. "It seems a long time since we had a little talk
together."

He suddenly held her to him, and she met his lips unresistingly. It was
the first time he had even attempted anything of the sort for months.

"You are a dear, John," she said, a little wistfully. "I am terribly
divided in my thoughts about you. Just now I feel that I have only one
wish--that I could give you all that you want, all that you deserve!"

He was very loverlike. She was once more a slight, quivering thing in
his arms.

"Why need we wait any longer?" he begged. "If we told everyone
to-night--to-morrow--the Faradays would not expect you to keep your
engagement."

She shook herself free from him, but her smile was almost a
compensation. The taxicab had stopped opposite her door, and her servant
came hurrying out.

"Until Monday!" she murmured.

XXI

Early on the following morning John glided out of London in his
two-seated racing-car, on his way to Bourne End. The white mist that
hung over the Streets and parks and obscured the sky passed away as he
left the suburbs behind him. With his first glimpse of the country came
a welcome change. There were little flecks of blue in the firmament
above him, a distinct if somewhat watery sunshine, and a soft buoyancy
in the air, almost an anticipation of spring.

John leaned back in his seat, filled with an unexpected sense of
contentment. After all, this week-end visit would probably turn out to
be pleasant enough, and on Monday night the play was to be produced at
last. He felt that for weeks Louise had been living in an atmosphere of
high te