ossible situation in which he found himself, but Christopher had
nothing to bestow on him but blind, furious resentment. He longed to
be quit of his service and free to give way to his own wrath.

"There was plenty of warning for anyone with eyes and sense to use
them, and there was nothing cold-blooded about it whatever, as I've
told you fifty times. If you choose to make a mountain out of a
molehill you must, but I'll not help you. I would have done my best
for both of you if you'd taken it decently."

"You? What concern is it of yours?" retorted the other, stung back to
his original jealousy.

"It's my concern so far as Patricia chooses it to be," he answered
curtly. "I'm going now. You'd better write to her yourself, when
you've decided if the risk is worth taking or not."

"It's my risk at least, not yours--yet awhile," was the unguarded
reply.

The young men faced each other for a moment with passions at the point
of explosion. It was Christopher who recollected his position of
ambassador first and turned abruptly to the door. In the hall he
narrowly escaped encounter with Mrs. Leverson, Geoffry's large and
ample mother, but slipped out of a garden door on hearing the rustle
of her dress. In the open air he breathed freely again and hastened to
regain his motor, which he had left near the gates. Once outside Logan
Park he turned the car northward along a fairly deserted high-road and
drove at full pressure, until the hot passion of his heart cooled and
his pulse fell into beat with the throb of the engine, and he found
himself near Basingstoke. Then he turned homeward, driving with
greater caution and was able to face matters in a logically sane
manner.

"They won't marry and it's a blessed thing for both of them," was the
burden of his thoughts, though it mitigated not one bit his indignant
attitude towards Geoffry. Presently he turned to his own interest in
the matter.

His first idea was that he was free to claim her who was his own at
once, without loss of time, but that impulse died down before a better
appreciation of facts. Patricia must be left free in mind to regain
possession of every faculty, that was but common fairness: also he was
by no means certain at this time what response she would make to his
claim, and if it should be a negative his position at Marden would be
difficult, and there was Aymer to consider. Quite slowly, and with no
appreciable connection with the chief subject a recollec