lue eyes
looked rather stern. "You don't want a girl to take you out of pity, do
you? That's not much of a basis for a happy marriage, is it?"

"No, Barry." He took the rebuke well. "I was talking like a fool. But
honestly, I do mean to marry--as soon as possible. Oh, I daresay I'm
taking it the wrong way, but it seems to me that there's only one thing
for a man in my position to do, and that is to show that he's not
heart-broken because one unscrupulous woman has treated him badly!"

"That's all very well--but what about the other woman? Are you going to
marry the first girl you meet, irrespective of love, or what _are_ you
going to do? I can understand your feeling for Miss Rees has changed its
nature--love and hate are akin, I know, but still----"

"No, Barry, you're wrong." He spoke very gently. "I don't _hate_ Vivian.
Why should I? She merely exercised her feminine prerogative and changed
her mind. Besides, one only hates big things. Vivian isn't big. She's
very small, or she'd not have done this thing. If she'd asked me to
release her, I'd have done it, and never have uttered a reproach. It's
the heartlessness, the unnecessary cruelty of this that hurts me so. I
loved her, Barry, and she knew it. Loved her in the right way, in the
way a man should love the woman he's going to marry; and my love meant
so little to her that she chucked it away without even telling me she
was tired of it."

"But to marry, out of revenge, as it were, is small too."

"Out of revenge? Come, Barry, what are you thinking of?" Owen rose and
spoke with an eerie joviality. "There'll be no revenge about it! Mayn't
I marry and settle down like another man? I'll guarantee that the first
woman who wants me can have me; and if she plays the game she shan't
regret it, for I'll play it too!"

"But where will you look for her?" Barry could not understand this
attitude of mind.

"Look for her? Oh, I'll look for her all right--and she'll turn up,
never fear!" He moved restlessly. "There's always some woman ready to
enter a man's life when he throws the door ajar--and here I'm positively
flinging it open, inviting the little dears to come in!"

"But, I say, Owen"--Barry looked anxiously at his
friend--"you ... you'll be careful, won't you? I mean, you won't let any
twopenny-halfpenny little chorus-girl, or ... or girl out of a shop come
in, will you? You see, if you let them all know...."

"Chorus-girls are sometimes worth a good deal more th