. She
assumed a most unfriendly manner.

"Indeed?" with chilling irony. "And why, may I ask?"

Freddie was taken aback. This was most unexpected.

"Practice makes perfect," he said glibly. "Don't you want me to carry
'em, Kitty?" He said it almost tearfully.

Katherine exulted inwardly. Outwardly she was very cool and very
baffling. "Please don't call me Kitty. I hate it."

"It's a dear little name. That's what I'm going to call you when we
are--well, you know."

"I _don't_ know. What are you talking about?"

"Oh, come now, Miss Rodney. Don't be so icy. What's up? Never
mind--don't tell me. I know. You're jealous of Connie." It was a bold
stroke and it had an immediate effect.

"Jealous!" she scoffed, but her cheeks went red. "Not I, Freddie." She
considered for a second and then went on: "She's not in love with you.
You must be blind. She's crazy about Mr. Medcroft."

"By Jove," exclaimed Freddie, stopping short, his eyes bulging. He
looked at her for a minute in silence, realisation sifting into his
face. "You're right! She _is_ in love with him. I see it now. Well, what
do you think of that! Her brother-in-law!"

"And he is in love with her too. Now you may go back to her and see if
you can't win her away from him. I shan't interfere, my dear Freddie.
Don't have me on your conscience. Good-by."

She left him standing there in the street. With well-practised tact he
darted into a tobacconist's shop.

"Another shake-down," he reflected ruefully. "They're all passing me up
to-day. But, great hooks, what's all this about Medcroft and Constance?"
He bought some cigarets and started off for a walk, mildly excited by
this new turn of affairs. It occurred to him, as he turned it all over
in his mind, that Mrs. Medcroft was amazingly resigned to the situation.
Of course, she was not blind to her husband's infatuation for her
sister. Therefore, if she were so cheerful and indifferent about it, it
followed that she was not especially distressed; in fact, it suddenly
dawned upon him she was not only reconciled but relieved. She had ceased
to love her husband! She could be a freelance in Love's lists,
notwithstanding the inconvenience of a legal attachment. "She's ripping,
too," concluded Freddie, with a certain buoyancy of spirit. "If she
doesn't love Medcroft, she at least ought to love someone else instead.
It's customary. I wonder--" Here he reflected deeply for an instant, his
spirits floating high. Then he tu