think--"

He felt he could not bear it. "Mabel, look here. For goodness' sake
don't say you do think I ought to have let you know. I know I ought but
I couldn't. And I'm not in a state to go on niggling about it. Young
Perch is killed and his mother's dead. Now for goodness' sake, for
pity's sake, let it alone. I couldn't send and there's the end of it."

He went out of the room. He thought, "There you are! Now I've done it!"
He went back. "I say, I'm sorry for bursting out like that; but I've had
rather a night of it. It's terrible, isn't it, both of them like that?
Aren't you awfully sorry about it, Mabel?"

She said, "I'm very sorry. Very sorry indeed. But you can't expect me to
say much when you speak in that extraordinary manner."

"I was with her when she died. It's upset me a bit."

"I don't wonder. If you ask me, I think it was very extraordinary your
being there. If you ask me, I think it was very funny of that Miss
Bright sending for you at that hour of the night. Whyever should she
send for you of all people?"

"I was their greatest friend."

"Yes, I know you always liked them. But you couldn't be of any use. I
must say I do think people are very funny sometimes. If Miss Bright had
done the right thing, as we are their nearest neighbors, she would have
sent and asked me if I could let one of the maids go over and be with
her. Then you could have gone up too if you'd wished and could have
come back again. I don't think she had any right to send for you."

He had sat down and was about to pour himself out some tea. He put down
the teapot and got up. "Look here, do me a favour. They're dead, both of
them. Don't say anything more about them. Don't mention the subject
again. For God's sake."

He went out of the house and got his bicycle and set out for the office.
At the top of the Green he passed young Pinnock, the son of Pinnock's
Stores. Some patch of colour about young Pinnock caught his eye. He
looked again. The colour was a vivid red crown on a khaki brassard on
the young man's arm. The badge of the recruits enrolled under the Derby
enlistment scheme. He dismounted. "Hullo, Pinnock. How on earth did you
get that armlet?"

"I've joined up."

"But I thought you'd been rejected about forty times. Haven't you got
one foot in the grave or something?"

Young Pinnock grinned hugely. "Don't matter if you've got both feet in,
or head and shoulders neither, over at Chovensbury to-day, Mr. Sabre.
It's