together if you're
quick."

She went away quietly. They heard her mounting the stairs, but only
Devenish noticed the difference in the way she had come down and the
manner in which she returned. He also read its meaning.

"How long has she been living with you here?" he asked, when Traill
had closed the door and returned to the continuance of his dressing.

"A few months over three years."

"Of course--I remember your telling me."

They fell into silence, Devenish watching his friend with
half-conscious amusement as he clumsily tied a white tie, then shot
his arms into waistcoat and coat, one after the other, with no study
of the effect and apparently but little interest.

Lest it should seem unaccountable that this man, seemingly a stranger,
walking casually one evening into his rooms, should be apparently
so intimately possessed of the circumstances of Traill's
relationship with Sally, it were as well to point out that men in
their friendship are bound by no necessity of constant meeting. In
a while they meet and for a while see nothing of each other; but when
they meet--no matter what time may have elapsed since their last
coming together--they are the same friends whose conversation might
just have been broken, needing only the formalities of welcome to
set it going on again, as you wind a clock that has run out the tether
of its spring. To account then for the friendship of these two so
diametrically opposed in character--for in Devenish's regard for
appearances and Traill's supercilious contempt of them, there are
the foundations of two utterly opposite characters--it is necessary
to say that their friendship had been formed at school, after which,
a train of circumstances had nursed it to maturity. At school,
Devenish had been an athlete, superior to Traill in every sport that
he took up. You have there the ground for approval and a certain
strain of sympathy between the two men. The fact that at the 'Varsity
Devenish had developed taste for dress was outweighed by the fact
that he was a double blue, holding place in the fifteen and winning
the quarter-mile in a time that justified admiration.

These qualities had left a lasting impression upon Traill. He
disliked the dandy with a strong predisposition to like the man.
Knowing little of his life in society, refusing to meet his
wife--where he assured Devenish all friendships between man and man
ended--he had retained that predisposition towards friendshi