a bit of the road home with him. 'I am struck by
your grip on these difficult problems, Mr Brand,' he told me. 'There is
much I can tell you, and you may be of great value to our cause.' He
asked me a lot of questions about my past, which I answered with easy
mendacity. Before we parted he made me promise to come one night to
supper.

Next day I got a glimpse of Mary, and to my vexation she cut me dead.
She was walking with a flock of bare-headed girls, all chattering hard,
and though she saw me quite plainly she turned away her eyes. I had
been waiting for my cue, so I did not lift my hat, but passed on as if
we were strangers. I reckoned it was part of the game, but that
trifling thing annoyed me, and I spent a morose evening.

The following day I saw her again, this time talking sedately with Mr
Ivery, and dressed in a very pretty summer gown, and a broad-brimmed
straw hat with flowers in it. This time she stopped with a bright smile
and held out her hand. 'Mr Brand, isn't it?' she asked with a pretty
hesitation. And then, turning to her companion--'This is Mr Brand. He
stayed with us last month in Gloucestershire.'

Mr Ivery announced that he and I were already acquainted. Seen in broad
daylight he was a very personable fellow, somewhere between forty-five
and fifty, with a middle-aged figure and a curiously young face. I
noticed that there were hardly any lines on it, and it was rather that
of a very wise child than that of a man. He had a pleasant smile which
made his jaw and cheeks expand like indiarubber. 'You are coming to sup
with me, Mr Brand,' he cried after me. 'On Tuesday after Moot. I have
already written.' He whisked Mary away from me, and I had to content
myself with contemplating her figure till it disappeared round a bend
of the road.

Next day in London I found a letter from Peter. He had been very solemn
of late, and very reminiscent of old days now that he concluded his
active life was over. But this time he was in a different mood. '_I
think,_' he wrote, '_that you and I will meet again soon, my old
friend. Do you remember when we went after the big black-maned lion in
the Rooirand and couldn't get on his track, and then one morning we
woke up and said we would get him today?--and we did, but he very near
got you first. I've had a feel these last days that we're both going
down into the Valley to meet with Apolyon, and that the devil will give
us a bad time, but anyhow we'll be together._'