ou had better let him have it."

There was that in her voice that he had never heard before. He stopped
short, looking back at her.

"Let him have it!" she reiterated. "Let him soak himself with it! You
won't quiet him any other way."

Even as she spoke, that horrible, half-intoxicated laugh came to
them, insulting the beauty of the summer afternoon. Avery shivered
from head to foot.

"Don't go!" she said. "Please!"

She rose as Tudor came back, rose and faced him, her face like death.

"I think I must go home," she said. "Will you find the car? No, I am not
ill. I--" She paused, seemed to grope for words, stopped, and suddenly a
bewildered look came into her face. Her eyes dilated. She gave a sharp
gasp. Tudor caught her as she fell.

CHAPTER VI

THE MASK

The bride and bridegroom departed amid a storm of rice and good wishes,
Ina's face still wearing that slightly contemptuous smile to the last.
Piers, in the foremost of the crowd, threw a handful straight into her
lap as the car started, but only he and Dick Guyes saw her gather it up
with sudden energy and fling it back in his face.

Piers dropped off the step laughing. "Ye gods! What fun for Dick
Guyes!" he said.

A hand grasped his shoulder, and he turned and saw Lennox Tudor.

"Hullo!" he said, sharply freeing himself.

"I want a word with you," said Tudor briefly.

A wary look came into Piers' face on the instant. He looked at Tudor with
the measuring eye of a fencer.

"What about?" he asked.

"I can't tell you here. Will you walk back with me? Lady Evesham has
already gone in the car."

Piers' black brows went up, "Why was that? Wasn't she well?"

"No," said Tudor curtly.

"But she will send the car back," said Piers, stubbornly refusing to
betray himself.

"No, she won't. I told her we would walk."

"The devil you did!" said Piers.

He turned his back on Tudor, and went into the house.

But Tudor was undaunted. In a battle of wills, he was fully a match for
Piers. He kept close behind.

Eventually, Piers turned upon him. "Look here! I'll give you five minutes
in the library. I'm not going to walk three miles with you in this
blazing heat. It would be damned unhealthy for us both. Moreover, I've
promised to spend the evening with Colonel Rose."

It was the utmost he could hope for, and Tudor had the sense to accept
what he could get. He followed him to the library in silence.

They found it empty, and Tudor quietly turne