Give it to Mrs. Chesney, please."

Sophy also was trembling and very pale.

Chesney lay back upon his pillows watching them with the sketch of a
queer smile about his mouth. He himself broke the strained silence.

"And now, Gaynor," said he, "be so kind as to take away this stuff and
bring me a fresh glass of wine."

Gaynor moved to the bedside as in a daze. Then his face worked suddenly.

"Oh ... sir!" he said in a husky whisper.

"There, that will do! I'd like to be alone for a bit. I'm sure you'll
excuse me, Sophy."

She went and kissed him in silence. Gaynor had left the room at once,
his head hung low on his breast. Sophy followed quickly.

When the door was shut, a convulsed look broke the assumed calm on
Chesney's face.

"Damn it!" he choked, clenching his fist at the wall before him.
"Damnation! I've lied to a man--and he believes me!"

Somehow, what had been almost an amusing game when played for Sophy's
benefit, turned to stark humiliation when practised on another man.

He slipped from the bed and, striding to the door in his bare feet,
snapped the lock. Then reaching his bed again, thrust his arm far in
between the mattresses. He drew out a brand-new syringe--opened it
deftly, fitted on the needle--took a spoon from a little drawer in the
table. Heated water in it over the lamp, dissolved in it a half-grain
tablet of morphia (he was afraid to take a larger dose lest it should
prove noticeable)--stripped up the sleeve from his powerful forearm all
covered with purplish knots, and drove the little needle home in his
flesh, holding the syringe firmly in place by its curved, steel horns,
so like the antennae of some poisonous insect. Then he hid all away
again--unlocked the door, and slipped quickly into bed.

When Gaynor arrived a moment later, his master seemed to be dozing.

The valet stood looking down on him with a shy expression of affection
and relief.

"Thank God," the servant's heart was saying; "thank God--he's acted like
a man!"

XIX

Lady Wychcote came again next morning about ten o'clock. She seemed much
mollified by Sophy's account of the arrangement that had been entered
into--showed a marked inclination to assume more amicable relations with
her daughter-in-law.

"I _knew_ that he would act reasonably when things were put clearly
before him. He is erratic--but a most able creature. As soon as he
realised the gravity of the situation I was convinced that he would act