vy ripplings and slightly curved from point
to hilt. "That would do your trick better. Under the fifth rib.
I bought it of a Greek muleteer, God knows how he got hold of it,
but he was a bit of a poet: he assured me it would go in 'as soft
as a kiss.' For its softness I cannot speak, but it is as sharp
as a knife need be."

"Sharper," said Bernard, his thumb in his mouth.

"You silly ass, I warned you!-- I should rather like to see this
Moore play. I suppose Laura never goes, as you don't?"

"I don't stop her going, as you jolly well know. She's welcome
to go six nights a week if she likes."

"She couldn't very well go alone," Lawrence ignored the scowl of
his host. "Tell you what: suppose I took her tonight? I could
run her up and down in my car, or we could get back by the
midnight train. Would the feelings of Chilmark be outraged?"

"What business is it of Chilmark's? If I'm complaisant, that's
enough," said Bernard, his features relaxing into a broad grin.
"I may be planked down in a country village for the rest of my
very unnatural life, but I'll be shot if I'll regulate mine or my
wife'& behaviour by the twaddle they talk! I'll have that
dagger." Slipping it slowly into its sheath he watched it travel
home, the supple female curve gliding and yielding as a woman
yields to a man's caress. "Voluptuous, I call it. Under the
left breast, eh?" He drew it again and held it poised and
pointing at his cousin. "Come, even I could cut your heart out
with a gem of a blade like that." Lawrence held himself lightly
erect, his big frame stiffening from head to foot and the pupils
of his eyes dilating till the irids were blackened. "Call
Laura." Bernard sheathed the dagger again and laid it down.
"She's out there snipping away at the roses. Why can't she leave
'em to Parker? She's always messing about out there dirtying her
hands, and then she comes in and paws me. Call her in."

Lawrence escaped into the sunshine. He had not liked that moment
when Bernard had held up the dagger, nor was it the first time
that Bernard had made him shiver, but these vague apprehensions
soon faded in the open air. It was a sallow sunshine, a light
wind was blowing, and the lawn was spun over with brilliancies of
gossamer and flecked with yellow leaflets of acacia and lime.
Little light clouds floated overhead, sun-smitten to a fiery
whiteness, or curling in gold and silver surf over the grey of
distant hayfields. In