hen they like them, when they're old friends, you know. I only
spoke to him for a moment, I only just met him on the road. I don't
suppose I shall ever talk to him about it, or about anything in
particular, again." She squeezed Neeld's hand a second time, and then
withdrew her own.

This was unknown country again for Mr Neeld; his sense of being lost
grew more acute. These were not the sort of problems which had occupied
his life; but they seemed now to him no less real, hardly less
important. It was only a girl wondering if she had done right. Yet he
felt the importance of it.

"You can't help the unhappiness," he said. "You must go to the man you
love, my dear."

With a little start she turned and looked at him for an instant. Then
she murmured in a perfunctory fashion:

"Yes, I must make the best choice I can, of course." She added after a
pause, "But I wish----"

Words or the inclination to speak failed her again, and she relapsed
into silence.

As he sat there beside her, silent too, his mind travelled back to what
her father had said; and slowly he began to understand. No doubt she
liked Harry, even as her father did. No doubt she thought he would be a
good husband, as Iver had thought him a good fellow. But it became plain
to the searcher after truth that not to her any more than to her father
was it nothing that Harry was Tristram of Blent. Her phrases about doing
right and making the right choice included a reference to that, even if
that were not their whole meaning. She had mentioned her father's
pleasure--everybody's pleasure. That pleasure would be found largely in
seeing her Lady Tristram. What then would she have to say on the
question that so perplexed Mr Neeld? Would she not echo Iver's
accusation of fraud against Harry Tristram and (as a consequence)
against those who aided and abetted him? Would she understand or accept
as an excuse the plea that Neeld had been led away by romance or
entrapped into a conspiracy by Mina Zabriska? No. She too would call out
"Fraud, fraud!" and he did not blame her. He called himself a fool for
having been led away by romance, by unreasoning feeling. Should he blame
her because she was not led away? His disposition was to praise her for
a choice so wise, and to think that she had done very right in
accepting Lord Tristram of Blent. Aye, Lord Tristram of Blent!
Precisely! Deep despair settled on Mr Neeld's baffled mind.

Meanwhile, Duplay walked home, the happier