oice
again.

"Morry!" she called. "Morry!"

He paid not the slightest heed. She ran after him, caught him up,
panting.

"_Don't_ go off half-cocked like this," she gasped, running at his side,
for he was literally running himself now over the rough shingle. "I
never meant to hint anything really _wrong_ you know."

She might have been the waves that babbled along the shore.

"What are you going to do?... Don't do anything now.... You'll be
sorry...."

He ran on. She kept up with him. They looked quite splendid, running
shoulder to shoulder through the fresh morning air, against the
background of glinting water.

"Morry ... _answer_ me...."

She was less to him than the air; he had to breathe the air--he had no
need for Belinda just then, in any way. But when they had reached the
levels where other people passed to and fro, he turned on her. He really
looked dangerous. All the brute was up in him--all in him that a man at
Polo had once called "howling cad." This cad now howled at Belinda. She
cowered under it.

"I guess even _you_ know when a man's had enough of you," he flung in
her white face. She dropped back as though she had been spat upon. He
strode on, exulting to be rid of her.

XXXIV

As he reached the house, he met Amaldi coming from it. It was only
eleven o'clock in the morning, an odd hour to call, but Amaldi had not
been to call, he had only stopped by for a moment to leave some music
that he had promised Sophy. He was most anxious to have news of her
after his anxiety about her last evening. So he took this excuse to stop
in.

The butler said that Mrs. Loring had breakfasted but had not come down
yet. It was only when the man told him that Sophy had breakfasted that
Amaldi realised how anxious he really had been. Then he turned away and
was face to face with Loring.

The young man gave him the barest, surly nod. His expression was
singularly hateful. Amaldi could not quite make it out. Loring had
always been perfectly negative in his manner to him, except when goaded
to a passing jealousy by Belinda. On those occasions he had usually
flung out of the room. Now Amaldi felt hatred in the fleeting insolence
of the look that brushed across his face as Loring passed. Was this
unaccountable, moody being going to take sudden umbrage at his
friendship with Sophy? He went on his way heavy of heart, anxious and
disquieted again.

Loring was met by Simms with a message. Mrs. Loring would l