ts you--wants you of her own free will--then I'll put up
the banns for you myself--and that's honest to God."

He offered his hand on the compact, but Claude didn't take it. He didn't
take it because he didn't see it, and he didn't see it because he looked
over it and beyond it, as over and beyond the young Irishman himself. It
was not that he had any doubt as to Jim's word being honest to God, or
that he questioned Rosie's state of mind as Jim had sketched it. It was
rather that he was seeing the Claude who was a gentleman and a hero and
a devil-of-a-fellow recede into the ether, while he was left eternally
with the Claude who remained behind.

Jim felt no resentment for the neglect of his proffered hand, but the
long stare of those sick, unseeing eyes made him uneasy. "Well, I guess
I must beat it back to my job," he said, beginning to move away. "So
long, Claude, and good luck to you!" He added, in order to return to a
colloquial tone, "If you ever want a fern-tree, don't forget that we've
got some daisies."

But Claude was still staring at the great blue blank which the fading of
his ideal had left behind it.

CHAPTER XXXII

Twenty-four hours after Claude turned to take the way of humiliation
down the hill, undeceived by Jim Breen's friendly tone and the hope of
future possibilities held out to him, Thor Masterman found himself
almost within sight of home. On arriving in the city late in the
afternoon he went to a hotel, where he took a room and dined. When he
had devised the means of letting Lois know that he was camping outside
her gates she might be sufficiently touched to throw them open. She
might never love him again; she might never have really loved him at
all; but he would content himself with a benevolent toleration. Like
her, he was afraid of love. The word meant too much or too little, he
was not sure which. It was too explosive. Its dynamic force was at too
high a pressure for the calm routine of married life. If Lois could find
a substitute for love, he was willing to accept it, giving her his own
substitute in return. All he asked was the privilege of seeing her, of
being with her, of proving his devotion, of having her once more to
share his life.

It was not to force this issue, but to play lovingly with the hope in
it, that when dusk had deepened into evening he took the open electric
car that would carry him to the village. He had no intention beyond that
of enjoying the cool night