wn opinion about it?"

"That's just what I don't want to give," I objected.

"But you must. I have to come to some decision about this."

"Well, then--I think he did leave her room--enough and a little more
than enough; but I also think that he meant to annoy her. I'm sure he
didn't mean to put her in danger of an upset, but I do think that, with
such a horse as she was driving, an upset might have been the result,
and he ought to have thought of that--only he doesn't know much about
horses. On the other hand I don't think she deliberately made up her
mind to hit him--but I do think she meant to go as near to it as she
could without actually doing it; I think she meant to make him jump.
That's about my idea of the truth of the matter."

"Yes, I daresay," she said thoughtfully. "When Sir John comes to you,
bring him straight up here. They mustn't meet to-night, of course, but I
should like to see Sir John first--if he comes this morning or soon
after lunch."

"It's all very tiresome," said I lugubriously.

She suddenly put her hands in mine--in one of her moments of impulse.
"Oh, yes, yes, dear friend!" she murmured with an acute note of distress
in her voice. Tiresome as the affair was, it hardly seemed to call for
that; but I had not yet realized her position in its full difficulty; I
did not know what every new proof of Octon's "impossibility" meant to
her.

Sir John arrived, hot-haste, before lunch. Happily Fillingford was with
him. I say happily, for I gathered that the angry husband's first
intention had been to go straight to Hatcham Ford and undertake the
horse-whipping of Leonard Octon--which enterprise must have ended in
broken bones for Sir John, and probably the police court for both
combatants. Fillingford happened to be with him when Lady Aspenick
arrived at home and told her story; with difficulty he dissuaded
Aspenick from violent measures; above all, nothing must get into the
papers; all the same, it was a case for decisive private action.
According to my orders I took Sir John up to Jenny, and Fillingford came
with us.

There--before her--we had the whole story over again. Sir John told his
wife's version, I put Octon's forward against it--if only for fair
play's sake. Sir John naturally would have none of Octon's, nor would
Fillingford. Then I repeated my own impression of the affair. Any points
in it which made for Octon Sir John violently rejected; Fillingford's
attitude was wiser, the posi