her with his head on one side and his hands in his
pockets, cautiously and without committing himself.

"Well, Babs, if you _don't_ always have me at hand for all your moods
and all your needs----"

"Yes?"

He turned away to knock the ash from his cigarette and to avoid a
possible change of expression in her eyes.

"My dear, you'll have only yourself to blame."

"I know. Bless you, dear Eric. Somehow, I was afraid you might have
changed. Thinking of you all those miles away, I felt you were too good
to be true. Let's go down to dinner. You've only got me, I'm afraid.
Will you be bored?"

"I don't suppose so," he answered, smiling; but, indefinably, he was
disappointed.

2

The Crawleighs spent a month in London before repairing to Hampshire for
the summer.

"Make the most of me," said Barbara, when her father's decision was made
known. "You may never see me again."

"I wonder whether you'd mind," Eric mused. "Don't you sometimes feel
that I've served my turn?"

"That's a horrid thing to say! If anything took you out of my life . . .
Say you're sorry this very moment!"

Eric laughingly complied, but he could not easily shake off his
disappointment that Barbara had come back after three months without
nerving herself to make a decision. Though Jack Waring's name was still
never mentioned, he felt that she was increasingly unreasonable in
honouring any superstitious obligation to his memory. A vague, resentful
impatience ruffled the serenity of their meetings; and, though they
plotted to lunch or dine together daily and counted the remaining hours
with jealous concern, Eric was shocked to find himself secretly
relieved when Barbara said "Only another week."

"I've not seen very much of you," he grumbled inconsistently. "Why don't
you dine with me to-morrow?"

Barbara had undergone some transformation in the last six months until
she seemed hardly to need him. In the old days she was a slave to be
summoned by a clap of the hands; but, since he had healed her spirit,
she was a queen to be courted.

"I'll come, if you like," she said. "It means throwing over George
Oakleigh. And I haven't seen him since I came back."

"I shouldn't dream of asking you to do that. I've chosen an unfortunate
day. I've chosen rather a lot of unfortunate days lately," he added.

"Is that very gracious, Eric? I've said I'll come."

The desire to get his own way and the growing need of her struggled
confusedly with the res