her go. The law is on my side; I could have
insisted that she stayed with me." He looked at his friend. "_I could
have insisted, I say!_" he repeated.

Sangster raised his eyes.

"I'm not denying it; but it's much wiser as it is. Leave her alone,
and things will work out their own salvation."

"She'll forget all about me, and then what will happen?" Jimmy
demanded. "A nice thing--a very nice thing that would be."

"No doubt she thinks that is what you wish her to do."

Jimmy called him a fool; he threw a half-smoked cigarette into the
fire, and sat watching it burn with a scowl on his face.

The last week had seemed endless. He had kept away from the club; the
men in the club always knew everything--he had learned that by previous
experience; he had no desire for the shower of chaff which he knew
would greet his appearance there.

Married a week--and now Christine had gone! It made his soul writhe to
think of it. It had hurt enough to be jilted; but this--well, this
struck at his pride even more deeply.

"I thought you promised me to go down to Upton House and see how things
were," he growled at Sangster. "You haven't been, have you? I suppose
you don't mean to go either?"

"My dear chap----"

"Oh, don't 'dear chap' me," Jimmy struck in irritably. "Go if you mean
to go. . . . After all, if anything happens to Christine, it's my
responsibility----"

"Then you should go yourself."

"I promised I wouldn't--unless she asked me to. If you were anything
of a sport----"

In the end Sangster consented to go. He was not anxious to undertake
the journey, much as he wanted to see Christine again. At the end of
the second week he went off early one morning without telling Jimmy of
his intentions, and was back in town late the same night. Jimmy was
waiting for him in the rooms in the unfashionable part of Bloomsbury.
It struck Sangster for the first time that Jimmy was beginning to look
old; his face was drawn--his eyes looked worried. He turned on his
friend with a sort of rage when he entered.

"Why couldn't you have told me where you were going. Here I've been
waiting about all day, wondering where you were and what was up."

"I've been to see your wife--and there's nothing up."

"You mean you didn't see her?"

"Oh, yes, I did."

"Well--well!" Jimmy's voice sounded as if his nerves were worn to
rags; he could hardly keep still.

"She seemed very cheerful," said Sangster slowly. He spok