aped up and down as if he had been promised a walk.

Anthony laughed.

"So? You're pleased, are you? Ah, well..."

He turned out the gas, and the two passed upstairs.

Anthony was as good as his word.

You cannot kill Memory, but you can send the jade packing. That he did
faithfully. By sheer force of will he thrust all thoughts of Valerie
out of his head. They returned ceaselessly, to be as ceaselessly
rejected. Their rejection took the form of displacement. They were,
so to speak, crowded out. All day long he was for ever forcing his
attention upon some matter or other to the exclusion of the lady. A
thousand times she came tripping--always he fobbed her off.
Considering how much of late he had been content to drift with the
stream, the way in which his mind bent to the oars was amazing. His
output of mental energy was extraordinary. Will rode Brain with a
bloody spur. When night came, the man was worn out....

In the circumstances it was hard, though not surprising, that he should
have dreamed so persistently of the tall, dark girl. It suggests that
Nature is an unscrupulous opponent. Be that as it may, night after
night, while the man slept, the tares were sown. Sleep, whom he had
counted his ally, proved herself neutral. She was content to knit up
the sleeve of care. That her handmaidens as fast unravelled it was
none of her business. After a week of this devilry, Anthony groaned.
Then he set his teeth, and, pleading insomnia, obtained permission to
walk abroad after supper. With Patch at his heels, he covered mile
after mile. So, though the mental strain was prolonged, he became
physically played out. His determination had its reward. He came to
sleep like the dead.

With a sigh for his simplicity, Nature plucked another iron out of the
fire....

Anthony began to lose weight.

* * * * *

Thursday afternoon came and went, and with it Lady Touchstone and
Valerie. The Bumbles were duly overwhelmed, treating their visitors
with an embarrassing deference which nothing could induce them to
discard: out of pure courtesy Lady Touchstone ate enough for a
schoolboy; thereby doing much to atone for Valerie, who ate nothing at
all: the Alisons respectfully observed the saturnalia and solemnly
reduced Mason to a state of nervous disorder by entertaining him in the
servants' hall: Anthony kept out of the way.

Not so Patch, however, who must, of course, put his smal