about for a little time."

They leaned over the rail together. The young officer saluted and
withdrew. A freshening breeze blew in their faces and the sunshine
danced upon the foam-flecked sea. The harbour was lively with small
craft, an aeroplane was circling overhead, and out in the Roads several
warships were lying anchored.

"I was in luck this morning," Granet asserted.

"So were we," Geraldine replied. "I never enjoyed motoring more. Your
new car is wonderful."

"She is a beauty, isn't she?" Granet assented enthusiastically. "What
she could touch upon fourth speed I wouldn't dare to say. We were going
over sixty plenty of times this morning, and yet one scarcely noticed
it. You see, she's so beautifully hung."

"You are fortunate," she remarked, "to have an appreciative uncle."

"He is rather a brick," Granet acknowledged. "He's done me awfully well
all my life."

She nodded.

"You really are rather to be envied, aren't you, Captain Granet? You
have most of the things a man wants. You've had your opportunity, too of
doing just the finest things a man can, and you've done them."

He looked gloomily out seawards.

"I am lucky in one way," he admitted. "In others I am not so sure."

She kept her head turned from him. Somehow or other, she divined quite
well what was in his mind. She tried to think of something to say,
something to dispel the seriousness which she felt to be in the
atmosphere, but words failed her. It was he who broke the silence.

"May I ask you a question, Miss Conyers?"

"A question? Why not?"

"Are you really engaged to Major Thomson?"

She did not answer him at once. She still kept her eyes resolutely
turned away from his. When at last she spoke, her voice was scarcely
raised above a whisper.

"Certainly I am," she assented.

He leaned a little closer towards her. His voice sounded to her very
deep and firm. It was the voice of a man immensely in earnest.

"I am going to be an awful rotter," he said. "I suppose I ought to take
your answer to my question as final. I won't that's all. He came along
first but that isn't everything. It's a fair fight between him and me.
He hates me and takes no pains to hide it. He hates me because I care
for you--you know that. I couldn't keep it to myself even if I would."

She drew a little away but he forced her to look at him. There was
something else besides appeal in her eyes.

"You've been the victim of a mistake," he insisted, his ha