left. As he was closing the
high side door upon her, her fur coat intervened, and Jack set it
gently aside. Jill felt the touch, turned, glanced down and twitched
the garment away....

Anthony's eyes blazed. A short six inches away, Valerie's blazed
back....

On the opposite side of the car George and Lady Touchstone were hanging
out of their seats, raving concurrent invective against the Laws of
England.

For a moment eyes searched eyes steadily. Then, with a faint smile,
Anthony leaned forward and kissed the proud red lips. Then he shut the
door with infinite care....

Had Miss French's fur coat been less voluminous, the gulf which Error
had set between the lovers might have been bridged within the week.
But it was a fine wrap, and ample. In an instant the gulf had become a
sea of troubles, with the house that Jack had built upon one side, and
the castle which Jill had raised upon the other. And, as for a bridge,
their labour now was lost that sought to build one. It had become a
case for a causeway.

As the car slid forward--

"And why," said Lady Touchstone, "are you going away?"

Anthony laughed jerkily.

"Have a heart, Lady Touchstone," he cried. "I've already risked
imprisonment to save my secret."

Her ladyship looked about her.

"This," she said, "appears to be the interior of an expensive limousine
landaulette. Very different from a court-house. The seats are softer,
for one thing. Besides, from his adviser the client should conceal
nothing."

"Are you my adviser?"

"That," said Lady Touchstone, "is my role."

"But am I your client?"

"I advise you to be."

For a long moment Lyveden stared straight ahead. Upon the front seat
Miss French was chattering to George Alison with an unwonted
liveliness, punctuated with little bursts of merriment. All the while
she kept her head so turned that Anthony might miss not a jot of her
gaiety....

"I'm sorry," said Lyveden quietly. "You're very kind, Lady Touchstone,
and I'm properly grateful. But I can't tell you."

He was, of course, perfectly right. Intervention was not to be thought
of, much less encouraged. For one thing, to mutter that Valerie and he
were estranged would be to proclaim a previous intimacy. For another,
it was an affair, not of hearts only, but of deeps calling. Each
lifting up the other's heart, the twain had distilled a music that is
not of this world: it was unthinkable that an outsider should be shown
a