stopped bleeding. It was scratched and purple from
the fall, but he found another handkerchief of his own and did what he
could to improve his appearance. His shoulders and his jaw squared
themselves as he began to speak and his eyes were rather hard and
bright.

'Look here,' he said, facing Logotheti, 'we don't owe each other
anything, I think, so this sort of thing had better stop. You've been
going about in disguise with Miss Donne, and I have been making myself
look like some one else in order to watch you. We've found each other
out and I don t fancy that we're likely to be very friendly after this.
So the best thing we can do is to part quietly and go in opposite
directions. Don't you think so?'

The last question was addressed to Margaret. But instead of answering
at once she looked down and pushed some little lumps of dry mud about
with the toe of her shoe, as if she were trying to place them in a
symmetrical figure. It is a trick some young women have when they are
in doubt. Lushington turned to Logotheti again and waited for an
answer.

Now Logotheti did not care a straw for Lushington, and cared very
little, on the whole, whether the latter watched him or not; but he was
extremely anxious to please Margaret and play the part of generosity in
her eyes.

'I'm very sorry if anything I've said has offended you,' he said in a
smooth tone, answering Lushington. 'The fact is, it's all rather funny,
isn't it? Yes, just so! I'm making the best apology I can for having
been a little amused. I hope we part good friends, Mr. Lushington? That
is, if you still insist on walking.'

Margaret looked up while he was speaking and nodded her approbation of
the speech, which was very well conceived and left Lushington no
loophole through which to spy offence. But he responded coldly to the
advance.

'There is no reason whatever for apologising,' he said. 'It's the
instinct of humanity to laugh at a man who tumbles down in the street.
The object of our artificial modern civilisation is, however, to cloak
that sort of instinct as far as possible. Good morning.'

After delivering this Parthian shot he turned away with the evident
intention of going off on foot.

None of the three had noticed the sound of horses' feet and a light
carriage approaching from the direction of Versailles. A phaeton came
along at a smart pace and drew up beside the motor. Margaret uttered an
exclamation of surprise, and the two men stared with