ength of a leopard's. Before Davenant had time to
realize what he had done he found himself staggering--hurled against the
iron railing, which threatened to give way beneath his weight. He had
not taken breath when he was flung again. In the dim light of the
electrics he could see the glare in Ashley's eyes and hear him panting.
Davenant, too, panted, but his wrath that had flared up like a rocket
had already come down like a stick.

"Look here," he stammered; "we--we--c-can't do this sort of thing."

Ashley fell back. He, too, seemed to realize quickly the folly of the
situation. When he spoke it was less in anger than in protest.

"By God, you struck me!"

"I didn't know it, Colonel. If I did, we're quits on
it--because--because you insulted me. Perhaps you didn't know _that_.
I'm willing to think you didn't--if you'll only believe that the whole
thing has been a mistake--a damned, idiotic, tom-fool mistake."

The words had their effect. Ashley fell back still farther. There was a
sinking of his head and a shrinking of his figure that told of reaction
from the moment of physical excess.

A roadside bench was visible beneath an arc-lamp but a few yards away.
"Come and sit down," Davenant said, hoarsely. He found it difficult to
speak.

Ashley stumbled along. He sat down heavily, like a man spent with
fatigue or drink. With his elbows on his knees, he hid his face in his
hands, while his body rocked.

Davenant turned away, walking down the Embankment. He walked on for
fifty or sixty yards. He himself felt a curious sense of being battered
and used up. His heart pounded and the perspiration stood on his brow.
Putting his hand to his collar, he found his evening cravat awry and
his waistcoat pulled out of shape.

He grasped the rail, as if for support, looking off with unseeing eyes
into the night. Lights along the river-side were reflected in the water;
here and there a bridge made a long low arch of lamps; more lights
sprinkled the suburban hills, making a fringe to the pall of stars. They
grew pale, even while he looked at them, as before a brighter radiance,
and he knew that behind him the moon was coming up. He thought of the
moonrise of the previous evening, when Olivia Guion had walked with him
to the gate and let her hand rest in his. He recalled her words, as he
had recalled them a hundred times that day, "_The man I care for_." He
went back over each phase of their conversation, as though it was
somet