mstances of
his father's death and his own illness. He had meant to as soon as
this business was over. Good God! Suppose he had proposed and she had
accepted him, but without caring for him--suppose without any love in
her heart she had married him! He might not have found out the truth
until too late. The very idea revolted him; he clenched his fists so
violently that the nails of his right hand dug deep into his injured
thumb. Feeling the pain and seeing the red ooze up through the
bandage, he struggled briefly with unwelcome recollections, then on a
sudden impulse tore off the enfolding gauze and flung it angrily into
the fireplace. He had broken open the plagued wound again, but he did
not care.

If only he could know for certain whether to believe that maid's story
or not! Was Esther in plain language "that kind of girl"? The thought
that he might never know the truth goaded him to fury. If she was all
he wanted to believe her, how could one account for that detestable
picture of her nestling close to Holliday, her head on his shoulder?
How explain her disappearance? For that is what he began to call it.
During the course of the evening he rang up every hotel and pension in
Cannes and the neighbourhood without finding any news of her.
Moreover, the one person who could give him any information about her
movements--Holliday himself--had at midnight not returned to the
Carlton. What was one to make of that fact? It seemed to indicate
that the pair of them were off somewhere together dining--and after
that, what?

There was no real sleep for him that night, and the morning found him
decidedly worse. He did not even demur when the doctor came with Dido
and quietly laid down the law about rest and diet. He agreed
listlessly, unwilling to cause poor Dido additional anxiety. After
all, why not give in to them? They were only giving him good advice;
he had been stupid.

An hour later, however, he was not too ill to crawl to the telephone
when no one was about. Once again he rang up the Carlton in quest of
Holliday, only to be told that the Captain had not returned all night,
was still away.

The inference of this, acting upon his present state of mind, was like
pouring petrol on a smouldering fire. So she had gone off with the
fellow, had spent the night with him somewhere! The thing was true;
there was no good trying to shut one's eyes to it any longer. A dozen
tiny incidents recurred to him, ea