s. Don't you?'

Mallinson began to wonder immediately whether Fielding's opinions might
not be valuable after all, since Mrs. Willoughby valued them. If so, the
man might be able to throw some light upon other points--for instance,
the perplexing question of Miss Le Mesurier's inclinations. Mallinson
made up his mind to call upon Fielding. He called on the Sunday morning,
and Fielding blandly related to him his history of Sark.

Having worked Mallinson to a sufficiently amusing pitch of indignation,
and having hinted his moral that the subjugation of Miss Le Mesurier
would be effected only by the raider, Fielding complacently dismissed him
and repaired to Beaufort Gardens for lunch. He found Drake upon the
doorstep with a hand upon the knocker, and the two gentlemen exchanged
greetings.

'I have just left Mallinson,' said Fielding.

Drake's hand fell from the knocker.

'Tell me!' he said. 'Mallinson perplexes me in many ways. For instance,
he shows me little good-will now--'

'Does that surprise you?' Fielding interjected, with a laugh.

Drake coloured and replied quickly, 'You didn't let me finish. If he
dislikes me, what made him talk about me as his friend to--to the Le
Mesuriers before I returned to England?'

'Your name in print. You verged on--well, notoriety. You may laugh, but
that's the reason. Mallinson's always on the rack of other people's
opinions--judges himself by what he imagines to be their standard of him.
Acquaintanceship with a celebrity lifts him in their eyes, he thinks, so
really in his own.'

Drake remained doubtfully pondering what credit acquaintanceship with him
could confer on any one. He was led back to his old view of Mallinson as
a man tottering on a rickety base.

'Will he do something great?' he asked, his forehead puckered in an
effort to calculate the qualities which make for greatness.

Fielding chuckled quietly, and answered:

'Unlikely, I think. Clever, of course, the man is, but it is never the
work he does that pleases him, but the pose after the work's done.
That's fatal.'

Drake looked at Fielding curiously.

'That's a criticism which would never have occurred to me.' He glanced at
his watch. 'We have five minutes. Shall we walk round the Gardens?'
Fielding chuckled again and assented. He saw the curtain rising on his
comedy. For five minutes they paced up and down the pavement, with an
interchange of simple questions on Drake's part, and discriminating
answers