m interruption
for ten minutes together. Of late he had begun to chafe against
Val's cobweb barriers. Three months is a long time! and patience
was not a virtue that came natural to Lawrence Hyde.

He found Laura cutting off dead roses, a sufficiently harmless
occupation, one would have thought: a trifle thinner, a trifle
paler than when he came: and were those grey threads in her brown
hair?

"Berns wants you," said Lawrence. "I've done such an awful
thing, Laura--"

Again that flash of imperfect perception! What was going on
under the surface at Wanhope, that Laura should turn as white as
her handkerchief? He hurried on as if he had noticed nothing.
"Bernard and I have been laying our heads together. Do you know
what I'm going to do? Run you up to town to see the new Moore
play at Hadow's."

"Delightful!" Already Laura had recovered herself: her smile was
as sweet as ever, and as serene. "Was it your idea or Bernard's?"

"Mine. . . I say, Laura: Bernard is all right, isn't he?"

"In what way, all right?"

Lawrence reddened, regretting his indiscretion. "I've fancied
his manner queer, once or twice."

"There is a close connection, of course, between the spine and
the brain," said Laura quietly. "But my husband is perfectly
sane. . . . Oh my dear Lawrence, of course I forgive you! what is
there to forgive? I only wish I could come tonight, but I'm
afraid it can't be managed--"

"She says it can't be managed," said Lawrence, standing aside
for Laura to pass in. "Pitch into her, Bernard. Hear her talk
like a woman of sixty! Are you frightened of the night air,
Laura? Or would Chilmark chatter?"

"It might, if you and I went alone," Laura smiled.

"Make up a party then," suggested Lawrence. "Get the Bendishes
to come too."

She shook her head. "They're dining with the Dean."

"And decanal dinner-parties can't be thrown over." When he made
the suggestion, Lawrence had known that the Bendishes were dining
with the Dean. "Some one else, then."

"Whom could I ask like this at the last moment? No, I won't
go--thank you all the same. I'm not so keen on late hours and
long train journeys as I used to be. Go by yourself and you can
tell us all about it afterwards. Berns and I shall enjoy that as
much as seeing it ourselves. Shan't we, Berns?" Clowes gave a
short laugh: he could not have expressed his opinion more clearly
if he had called his wife a fool to her face.

"You weren't