Bellby
thought it would be over by the summer. Both agreed that they wanted
more men. There was nothing for it but complete victory, since it was
now a question of prestige. Winifred brought things back to more solid
ground by saying that she did not want the divorce suit to come on till
after the summer holidays had begun at Oxford, then the boys would have
forgotten about it before Val had to go up again; the London season too
would be over. The lawyers reassured her, an interval of six months was
necessary--after that the earlier the better. People were now beginning
to come in, and they parted--Soames to the city, Bellby to his chambers,
Winifred in a hansom to Park Lane to let her mother know how she had
fared. The issue had been so satisfactory on the whole that it was
considered advisable to tell James, who never failed to say day after
day that he didn't know about Winifred's affair, he couldn't tell. As
his sands ran out; the importance of mundane matters became increasingly
grave to him, as if he were feeling: 'I must make the most of it, and
worry well; I shall soon have nothing to worry about.'

He received the report grudgingly. It was a new-fangled way of going
about things, and he didn't know! But he gave Winifred a cheque, saying:

"I expect you'll have a lot of expense. That's a new hat you've got on.
Why doesn't Val come and see us?"

Winifred promised to bring him to dinner soon. And, going home, she
sought her bedroom where she could be alone. Now that her husband had
been ordered back into her custody with a view to putting him away from
her for ever, she would try once more to find out from her sore and
lonely heart what she really wanted.

CHAPTER VIII--THE CHALLENGE

The morning had been misty, verging on frost, but the sun came out while
Val was jogging towards the Roehampton Gate, whence he would canter
on to the usual tryst. His spirits were rising rapidly. There had been
nothing so very terrible in the morning's proceedings beyond the general
disgrace of violated privacy. 'If we were engaged!' he thought, 'what
happens wouldn't matter.' He felt, indeed, like human society, which
kicks and clamours at the results of matrimony, and hastens to get
married. And he galloped over the winter-dried grass of Richmond Park,
fearing to be late. But again he was alone at the trysting spot, and
this second defection on the part of Holly upset him dreadfully. He
could not go back without seeing