me? Would
it have been sane to refuse?"

"No; I don't think it would. I should certainly have said yes, too.
That's the sort of thing that would have been called chivalry in olden
times. It's chivalry _now_. He was quite right to offer. It would
have been horrible if he had passed by and left you to be drenched."

Cecil brightened with relief.

"That's what _I_ thought! So I said `Yes'; and, of course, while we
walked we talked, and the wind blew my hair into loose ends, and the
damp made them curl, and the excitement gave me a colour; and it was so
nice to talk to a man again, Claire, after everlasting women! I _did_
look pretty when I saw myself in the glass when I came in, almost as I
used to look years before. And he looked handsome, too, big and strong,
and so delightfully like a man, and unlike a member of staff! We liked
each other very much, and when we got to this door--"

Silence. Mary Rhodes waited wistfully for a helping word. Claire
stared into the fire, her brows knitted in suspense.

"Well, naturally, we were sorry to part! He asked if I usually went to
Saint C--- for the evening service. I didn't, but I said `Yes.' I knew
he meant to meet me again, and I _wanted_ to be met."

Claire sent her thoughts back and recalled a certain Sunday evening when
she had offered to accompany Cecil to church, and had been bluntly
informed that her company was not desired. She had taken the hint, and
had not offered it again. She was silent, waiting for the revelations
which were still to come.

"So after that it became a regular thing. He met me outside the church
door, and saw me home. He often asked me to go out with him during the
week, but I always refused, until suddenly this term I was so tired, so
hungry for a change that I gave in, and promised that I would. I
suppose that shocks you into fits!"

"It does rather. You see," explained Claire laboriously, "I've been
brought up on the Continent, where such a thing would be impossible. It
would be an insult to suggest it. Even here in England it doesn't seem
right. Do you think a really nice man who was attracted by a girl
wouldn't find some other way--get an introduction _somehow_?"

"How? It's easy to talk, but _how_ is he to do it? We live in
different worlds. I am a High School teacher, living in rooms in
London, without a relation or a house open to me where I am intimate
enough to take a friend. He is an officer in a crack r