d.

They had supper together as usual, but when it was over he
surprised her by taking up his hat again.

"You are going out?" she said.

"I'm going to have a smoke with Guy," he said. "You have a game of
Patience, and then go to bed!"

She looked at him uncertainly. "I'll come with you," she said.

He was filling his pipe preparatory to departure. "You do as I
say!" he said.

She tried to laugh though she saw his face was grim. "You're
getting rather despotic, partner. I shall have to nip that in the
bud. I'm not going to stay at home and play Patience all by
myself. There!"

He raised his eyes abruptly from his task, and suddenly her heart
was beating fast and hard. "All right," he said. "We'll stay at
home together."

His tone was brief, but it thrilled her. She was afraid to speak
for a moment or two lest he should see her strange agitation.
Then, as he still looked at her, "Oh no, partner," she said
lightly. "That wouldn't be the same thing at all. I am much too
fond of my own company to object to solitude. I only thought I
would like to come, too. I love the _veldt_ at night."

"Do you?" he said. "I wonder what has taught you to do that."

He went on with the filling of his pipe as he spoke, and she was
conscious of quick relief. His words did not seem to ask for an
answer, and she made none.

"When are you going to take me to Ritzen?" she asked instead.

"To Ritzen!" He glanced up again in surprise. "Do you want to go
to Ritzen?"

"Or Brennerstadt," she said, "Whichever is the best shopping
centre."

"Oh!" He began to smile. "You want to shop, do you? What do you
want to buy?"

She looked at him severely. "Nothing for myself, I am glad to say."

"What! Something for me?" His smile gave him that look--that
boyish look--which once she had loved so dearly upon Guy's face.
She felt as if something were pulling at her heart. She ignored it
resolutely.

"You will have to buy it for yourself," she told him sternly.
"I've got nothing to buy it with. It's something you ought to have
got long ago--if you had any sense of decency."

"What on earth is it?" Burke dropped his pipe into his pocket and
gave her his full attention.

Sylvia, with a cigarette between her lips, got up to find the
matches. She lighted it very deliberately under his watching eyes,
then held out the match to him. "Light up, and I'll tell you."

He took the slender wrist, blew out the match, and he