rike the first blow and
stand ready to see what return she would make.

"_Darling Babs, it's essential that I should see you for a moment_," he
wrote. "_And that as soon as possible. Are you going to be in London
next week? If so, please fix your own time. If not, what about this? I'm
going down to Lashmar for the week-end and, if you can meet me for
thirty seconds at Crawleigh station, I'll come straight on to you on
Saturday and then get a train back to Winchester. I can't come to the
Abbey, obviously, or every one would want to know what was up. The
business in hand won't take a moment to discuss, but it's ABSOLUTELY
IMPERATIVE that we should discuss it at once._"

As he posted the letter, Eric was conscious that he could have said all
that was necessary without a meeting, but he knew well that it was far
easier for her to be collected and valiant on paper and at a distance.
If Barbara chose to accept his sacrifice, she should do it in his
presence, looking into his eyes.

"_Has something awful happened_?" she wrote in reply. "_You do FRIGHTEN
me so, when you write like that! I have to come up on Sunday for a
charity concert at the Olympic, where I'm a patroness or something. If
you really want to see me for only a moment, is it possible for you to
meet me at Winchester? The train gets in at 12.29 and leaves at 12.33
(aren't I getting clever with the time-table? As a matter of fact I
made father's secretary work it all out for me). If you'd like to wait
on the platform, I'll put my head out of the window and we can be
together for a moment. Dear Eric, I do hope you're not in any kind of
trouble! When you become telegraphic in manner, I always grow nervous.
Barbara._"

There was suppressed excitement at the Mill-House on Saturday night,
when he put in a claim for the car, announced his intention of driving
himself and instructed the maids with unusual particularity to see that
he did not oversleep himself.

"We're being very mysterious," murmured Sybil.

Eric smiled and said nothing.

He went to bed early in hope that a long night's rest would steady his
nerves for an interview which would not be the less trying for its
brevity and which, he now saw, had been made inevitably dramatic. It was
a perfect autumn morning, as he climbed into the car, with a scented
mist rising before his eyes, under the mild warmth of a November sun;
Lashmar Woods flaunted their last dwindling recklessness of colour, from
ivy-green