d whether Miss Barrie MacDonald went to Edinburgh or Jericho;
that the only thing which mattered was Mrs. West's friendship. If he
said this quickly, she would hold out both hands to him and cry a
little, and beg his pardon for being cross. Then they would forgive each
other and everything would be as before, or better. But Aline waited
breathlessly for an instant, and several more instants: and Somerled
said nothing at all. He would have continued to walk slowly on if she
had not stopped suddenly in the middle of the path, and brought him up
short. Already she was beginning to feel the pain of loss and the
weighty irrevocability of everything. "What are we going to do?" she
panted, her breast rising and falling alluringly. Her cheeks were bright
pink, and her eyes brilliant. Never had she been so near to beauty; but
Somerled faced her with a calm very like sullenness.

"What are _you_ going to do?" he answered her with a question.

"What do you want me to do?"

"I want you and Norman to go motoring with me through Scotland, of
course."

"Thank you. But I've made my point, and I must stick to it. Basil and I
won't go with you if this girl goes."

"We've quarrelled, then, have we?" he asked. His eyes were blue as the
ice of glaciers in his brown face. His mouth and chin looked hard as
iron; and never had Aline liked him half as well.

"Yes, we've quarrelled--if you insist," she said.

"Then I must no longer intrude on you as your guest."

"You'll go----"

"Naturally I'll go. I can't stay in your house--it's the same as your
house--when you think I no longer deserve your friendship. On my side, I
think you're unreasonable; but I may be wrong. Perhaps it's I who am
unreasonable, and can't see it. Anyhow, I shall have to go."

"I won't have Miss MacDonald in the house a minute after you leave,"
Aline said, almost threateningly.

"Why should you? Her packing won't take long, poor child."

"You'll have to send her back to her grandmother now," Aline warned him,
in a brief flame of defiance.

"That's impossible. I wouldn't break my promise, even if Mrs. MacDonald
didn't forbid her the house."

"She can't very well go alone with you to Edinburgh in your car, I
suppose?"

"She is going to Edinburgh in my car, but not alone with me. Won't you
go too, Mrs. West, and let us forget all this nonsense?"

"You call it nonsense? That shows how little you understand me, how
willing you are to spoil everything for the