hrubbery. If only Anthony hadn't just left.... You knew he'd
gone, didn't you?"

Valerie shook her head.

"I knew he was going," she said.

"He left on Monday," said Anne. "We're all heart-broken. He was
wonderful to work with, and nobody could help liking him. George is
desperate about it. Being a man, you see.... Besides, they were a lot
together. On the car, I mean. Off duty we never saw much of him. He
liked being alone. I think I'm the only one he went for a walk with
all the time he was there. And then Betty sent him. He'd never seen
the view from The Beacon, so I took him. He was bored stiff, and we
got soaked coming home, but he was very nice and polite about it. He
always was. And now, I suppose----"

"The Beacon?" said Valerie faintly. "Where--where's The Beacon?"

"I don't know what its real name is," said Anne. "We always call it
'The Beacon.' You must know it. That very high place in Red King Walk,
where the cliff goes sheer down...."

Valerie tried to speak, but no words would come. Something seemed to
be gripping her by the throat. The walls of the room, too, were
closing in, and there was a strange, roaring noise--like that of mills
working....

With a terrific effort she fought unconsciousness away....

_Her--their nest then, was, after all, inviolate. He had never taken
Anne there. Betty had sent him. And--he had--been bored--stiff...._

It was as if a mine had been sprung beneath the spot upon which had
been dumped her emotions of the last two months, blowing some to atoms,
bringing to light others that had lain buried. Out of the wrack, joy,
shame, fear fell at her feet--and a sentence out of a letter was
staring her in the face.

"_His explanation will shame you, of course, but take the lesson to
heart._"

"I wonder," she said shakily, "if you could give me Major Lyveden's
address."

"I would, like a shot," said Anne heartily, "but he wouldn't leave one."

Again the rumble of those labouring mills came swelling out of the
silence into a roar that was thunderous, brain-shaking.... For a
moment of time they pounded the understanding mercilessly.... Then,
all of a sudden, the machinery stopped.

The corn was ground.

CHAPTER VI

THE COMFORT OF APPLES

Anthony was healthily tired. So much so, in fact, that he was sorely
tempted to retire to bed without more ado. On reflecting, however,
that at least twenty minutes must elapse before his faithful