ewell. If he
won't come with us now it simply means a brief postponement. This friend
of mine cannot come into my life as he has done these weeks and then go
out of it again. He and I have already lost too many years of the
companionship which should have been ours; now together we must make up
for lost time."

Hamlen looked at him gratefully but did not answer. In single file the
little party walked along the narrow edge of the pool, down the steps
and back to the hotel. Cosden manoeuvered so that he had a word with
Edith before they separated.

"I sha'n't let you be cross with me," he said.

"I'm not cross; 'disgusted' is the word if you really want to know."

"But suppose my speaking was more sudden than my decision?"

"I would rather not discuss it, if you please."

"I've seen a great deal more of you than I have of Merry--"

"But when you make up your mind, Mr. Cosden--" Edith recalled his own
words.

"I never change it without reason," he replied. "And more than that, it
is very unprofessional to desert a client just when he needs you most."

"When a client disregards his counsel's advice it is time to change
counsel," she retorted with decision.

"Oh, dear, no!" Cosden replied in so conciliatory a tone that she was
partly mollified. The words rang with greater sincerity than she had
believed him to possess. "That isn't the way real counsels do at all,
especially when the client is so contrite."

"What is their custom?" Edith asked, amused in spite of herself.

"They charge it up on the bill and make him pay handsomely for his
presumption."

"Oh!" she said, weakening a little in the caustic attitude she had
assumed. "If it comes down to a matter of bookkeeping perhaps we can
effect a compromise."

* * * * *

XX

* * * * *

"To-day, Connie, is Saturday, to-morrow is the Sabbath, in which we are
not permitted to toil, neither can we spin, and on the day which
followeth we sail," Huntington remarked at luncheon.

Cosden regarded his companion critically. "It doesn't rhyme so I know it
isn't poetry; then it must be Scripture."

"Freely paraphrased, it means that this afternoon is the last
opportunity we shall have to exercise our golf-clubs on Bermudian soil."

"Enough said," Cosden answered sententiously; "I'll be ready whenever
you are. What a relief it will be to play on a real course again when
the season opens at home!