It would be a charity to go with them," said Mackinnon.

"Do you be charitable then," said his wife.

"It should be a lady," said he.

"It is a pity that the mother of the spotless cherubim is not here for
the occasion," said she. "I hardly think that any one less gifted
will undertake such a self-sacrifice." Any attempt of the kind would,
however, now have been too late, for they were already at the bottom of
the hill. O'Brien had certainly drunk freely of the pernicious contents
of those long-necked bottles, and, though no one could fairly accuse him
of being tipsy, nevertheless that which might have made others drunk had
made him bold, and he dared to do perhaps more than might become a man.
If under any circumstances he could be fool enough to make an avowal of
love to Mrs. Talboys he might be expected, as we all thought, to do it
now.

We watched them as they made for a gap in the wall which led through
into the large enclosed space of the old circus. It had been an arena
for chariot games, and they had gone down with the avowed purpose
of searching where might have been the meta and ascertaining how the
drivers could have turned when at their full speed. For a while we had
heard their voices, or rather her voice especially. "The heart of a man,
O'Brien, should suffice for all emergencies," we had heard her say. She
had assumed a strange habit of calling men by their simple names, as men
address one another. When she did this to Mackinnon, who was much older
than herself, we had been all amused by it, and other ladies of our
party had taken to call him "Mackinnon" when Mrs. Talboys was not by;
but we had felt the comedy to be less safe with O'Brien, especially when
on one occasion we heard him address her as Arabella. She did not seem
to be in any way struck by his doing so, and we supposed therefore that
it had become frequent between them. What reply he made at the moment
about the heart of a man I do not know, and then in a few minutes they
disappeared through the gap in the wall.

None of us followed them, although it would have seemed the most natural
thing in the world to do so had nothing out of the way been expected. As
it was, we remained there round the tomb quizzing the little foibles of
our dear friend and hoping that O'Brien would be quick in what he was
doing. That he would undoubtedly get a slap in the face, metaphorically,
we all felt certain, for none of us doubted the rigid propriety of the
l