t hold of the wooden standard of a porter's
rest. There was still no taxi in sight; Eric felt her pulse and dived
into his pocket for a flask. He had never before noticed the rest of its
inscription in honour of R. A. Slaney, for twenty-six years Member of
Parliament for Shrewsbury. . . .

"Take a sip of this," he ordered.

She drank obediently and thanked him with her eyes.

"I'm better. The first time we met I was fainting in the train. Before I
knew you. . . . And I loved you and dreamed of your love for me. I used
to hear your voice. . . . No one will ever look after me as you've done;
no one will ever understand or love or make allowances for me----"

As he restored the flask to his pocket, Eric saw that the time was
within a few minutes of midnight; in less than twenty-four hours he
would be at Liverpool; in less than twenty-four minutes he would have
lost the thing that was dearest to him in life.

"Barbara, you've seen Jack," he said. "He had his chance; he neglected
it. There's the answer we've been waiting for all these weary months. I
don't want to worry you when you're ill, but I can't charge my own
conscience with the knowledge that I've left undone anything which will
stop the present tragedy."

Though she opened her eyes slowly, there was now no trace of faintness
or exhaustion.

"He never had a chance! Eric, if you'll think for one moment--in a
crowded theatre, with people listening all round----"

"He could have written the moment he left Germany. He could have written
or seen you any time since that night. On the night itself he could have
asked you to let him come and see you. He didn't raise a finger! And you
still hypnotize yourself with one excuse after another--How much longer
are you going on?"

"I don't know, Eric." She covered her eyes for a moment and then rose to
her feet. "I'm bound in honour, as I've told you a hundred times. When I
know definitely----"

"Anything you know will have to be known to-night."

"But if you found a cable waiting for you in New York----"

"It would tell me what I know already--plus the fact that your vanity
had been convinced in spite of itself."

"I prefer 'honour' to 'vanity.'"

"Hadn't we better leave 'honour' out of the discussion?"

She looked at him for a moment, her mouth tightly shut; then, declining
his arm, she began walking slowly eastward. Opposite Bath House Eric
hailed an empty taxi and told the driver to take them to Berkeley
Squa