lief that an oldish suit of dress-clothes fitted him quite
decently, and then went to put on his own. He came down to the
drawing-room seven minutes after the gong with his ears very red and his
hair in a plume, to find Frank talking to his mother, and eyed by his
sisters who were pretending to look at photographs, with all the ease in
the world.

But dinner itself was difficult. It was the obvious thing to talk about
Frank's "walking-tour"; and yet this was exactly what Jack dared not do.
The state of the moors, and the deplorable ravages made among the young
grouse by the early rains, occupied them all to the end of fish; to the
grouse succeeded the bullocks: to the bullocks, the sheep, and, by an
obvious connection--obvious to all who knew that gentleman--from the
sheep to the new curate.

But just before the chocolate _soufflee_ there came a pause, and Jill,
the younger of the two sisters, hastened to fill the gap.

"Did you have a nice walking-tour, Mr. Guiseley?"

Frank turned to her politely.

"Yes, very nice, considering," he said.

"Have you been alone all the time?" pursued Jill, conscious of a social
success.

"Well, no," said Frank. "I was traveling with a ... well, with a man who
was an officer in the army. He was a major."

"And did you--"

"That's enough, Jill," said her mother decidedly. "Don't bother Mr.
Guiseley. He's tired with his walk."

The two young men sat quiet for a minute or two after the ladies had
left the room. Then Jack spoke.

"Well?" he said.

Frank looked up. There was an odd, patient kind of look in his eyes that
touched Jack a good deal. Frank had not been distinguished for
submissiveness hitherto.

"Oh! a bit later, if you don't mind," he said. "We can talk in the
smoking-room."

(IV)

"Well, I'll tell you the whole thing as far as I understand it," began
Frank, as the door closed behind Jackson, who had brought whisky and
candles. "And then I'll answer any questions you want."

He settled himself back in his chair, stretching out his legs and
clasping his hands behind his head. Jack had a good view of him and
could take notice of his own impressions, though he found them hard to
put into words afterwards. The words he finally chose were "subdued" and
"patient" again, and there are hardly two words that would have been
less applicable to Frank three months before. At the same time his
virility was more noticeable than ever; he had about him, Jack said,
someth