the ladies went upstairs."

"So Laura said this morning."

"There's no loophole for suspicion. I went back with Selincourt
to his rooms and we sat up the rest of the night smoking and
playing auction piquet. He won about five pounds off me. Ask
him: he'll confirm it."

"That's what he came for, isn't it?" Bernard smiled. "My good
chap, think I don't know that if you gave him a five pound note
to do it Selincourt would hold the door for you?"

Selincourt's pale face was scarlet. "I say she shall not return
to him!" he broke out loudly. "If this is a specimen of what
he'll say to us, what does he say to her?"

"No offence, no offence,'' Bernard bore him down, insolent and
jovial. "'The Lord commended the unjust steward.' I foresaw that
Lawrence would lie through thick and thin, and if I'd given it a
thought either way I should have known you'd be brought down to
back him up. And quite right too to stand by your sister--the
more so that all you Selincourts are as poor as Church rats and
naturally don't want your damaged goods back on your hands. But
don't get huffy, keep calm like me. You deny everything,
Lawrence. Quite right: a man's not worth his salt if he won't lie
to protect a woman. Laura also denies everything. Quite right
again: a woman's bound to lie to save her reputation. But the
husband also has his natural function, which is to exercise a
decent incredulity. Perhaps it's a bit difficult for you to
enter into my feelings. You're none of you married men and you
don't know how it stings a man up when his wife makes him a--
Hallo!"

"What?"

"What's the matter with you?"

"Go on," said Lawrence, flinging himself into a chair: "if you
have a point, come to it. I'm pretty well sick of this."

"So it seems," said Bernard staring at him. "Is it the good
old-fashioned English word that you can't stomach? All right, after
tonight I shan't offend again. That's my point and I'm coming to
it as fast as I can. I won't have any one of the lot of you near
me again except Val: I acquit him of complicity: he probably
believes Laura innocent. Don't you, Val?"

"There's no evidence whatever against her, outside your
imagination, old man."

"You're in love with her yourself," Bernard retorted brutally.
Val started, it was the second time in twelve hours. "Oh! think
I haven't seen that? There's not much I don't see, that goes on
around me. Cheer up, I'm not really jealous of you. Laura neve