he
told his news.

Judith received the tidings more calmly than he had anticipated. Indeed,
he could not recall, subsequently, that she said anything at all. It is
possible, however, that she said more than he heard. The fact was that
rather more instinctively than consciously, he watched, most closely,
the effect of the intelligence upon Imrie.

But whatever Imrie's emotions, he concealed them well. He said very
little, managing to express his surprise and regret with an apparently
quite genuine sincerity. In a few moments he recalled a forgotten
engagement, and left. It was not lost upon Roger that his tea was
untasted....

Judith, however, recalled him to less recondite speculation.

"It's absurd, of course," she said in a voice which struck him as very
strange and mechanical. "He can't leave us like this. It's too
ridiculous." For a moment he thought her feeling was one of resentment.
"Where can I reach him?" she asked abruptly. He concluded that it was
something quite different.

"God knows," he said. "But don't worry. It's just a tantrum. He'll be
back."

"Did you ever know him to have a tantrum?" demanded Judith, almost
fiercely. Roger was startled. He had never seen his sister look or act
just like that before. He tried, unsuccessfully, to guess what it all
signified.

"Call up the office and see if you can get his address," she ordered.
Obediently he went to the telephone. When he returned, she was pacing
slowly to and fro before the fireplace. Her mouth was curiously set,
with what sentiments he could not tell, and her eyebrows were drawn
together in two deep incisions. At her unspoken question he shook his
head.

"But I must find him--I simply must, you know," she cried petulantly,
like a child. He could only shrug his shoulders.

"It's so utterly silly," she murmured.

Suddenly she ceased pacing the floor, to stand staring, glassy-eyed, at
him ... and then, like a pricked balloon, she collapsed inertly on the
lounge, her face buried in her arms. Her heaving back and the sound from
the cushions, needed no explanation.

Roger stole softly from the room. He wondered, uncomfortably, as he went
upstairs, if he would ever understand women. Being about to marry one,
it struck him that some sort of understanding was rather important.

CHAPTER XIV

A SECRET REVEALED

I

But more pressing matters drove the curious problem presented by his
sister and Good temporarily out of Roger's mind. H