hey seemed to be all right. But he was very
jealous of her, and he had cause to be, for most of the fellows out there
were in love with her, and well, not to put too fine a point on it, she
liked it!" He hesitated. "She was rather too fond of telling people that
her husband wasn't quite kind to her."

"I think that was very natural of her!" exclaimed Jack, and Radmore felt
a surge of pity for the young fellow. Still he forced himself to go on:
"It's no use pretending. She was--and still is--a tremendous flirt."

Jack made a restless movement.

"I'm afraid you think me rather a cad for saying that, and I wouldn't say
it to anyone but you. She was bred in a bad school--brought up, so I
understood from a man who had known her as a girl, in Southsea, by a
widowed mother as pretty as herself. Her first husband--"

"But--but surely Colonel Crofton was her first husband?"

"No," again Radmore avoided looking at his companion, "she's been married
twice. Her first husband, a good-looking young chap in the 11th Hussars,
died quite soon after the marriage, the two of them having 'blued' all
they had between them. I suppose she foolishly thought there was nothing
left for it but for her to marry Colonel Crofton. And the real trouble
was that Colonel Crofton was poor. I fancy they'd have got on perfectly
well if he had had pots of money."

"I--I don't agree to that," Jack said hotly.

"I'm afraid it's true. But we really oughtn't to discuss a woman, even as
we are doing now. The only excuse is that we're both so fond of her,"
said Radmore lightly.

But even as he spoke he felt heavy-hearted. Jack Tosswill had got it very
badly, far worse than he had suspected, and somehow he didn't believe
that the medicine he had just administered had done the young man any
good.

CHAPTER XXIV

Two days went by, and now Saturday had come round again.

In a sense nothing had happened during those two days, and to some of the
inmates of Old Place the week had seemed extremely long and dull.

Mrs. Crofton had suddenly gone up to town for two nights, and both Jack
and Rosamund, in their very different ways, felt depressed and lonely in
consequence. But she was coming back to-day, and Rosamund was going to
meet her at the station with the Old Place pony cart.

At breakfast Rosamund suggested that perhaps Godfrey might like to motor
her there instead, but to her vexation he didn't "rise" at all. He simply
observed, rather shortly,