he
past--Cared!"

"But I gave you up because you loved another man; you loved a man more
worthy than I am. I wouldn't have stood aside if I had felt that the
other man was not good enough, that he was a waster and would not make
you happy; but I knew Tom better than that. Stick to him, don't ask for
too much. Believe always that he loves you, and that he is built of the
stuff that keeps straight and true, and so, God bless you, dear!"

He kissed her frankly as a brother might, and sat there watching her up
the drive to the house. He did not guess that when she gained the house
she slipped in by a garden door and ran up to her own room to indulge in
that relief that a woman may ever find when the grief is not too black
and too bitter, the relief of tears.

"I am worried about her," Hugh thought to himself; but "her" to him
meant Joan, not Marjorie.

When he said, "I am worried about her," he meant that he was worried
about Joan. If he said, "She would have liked this," "She" would mean
Joan.

"I am worried about her and that blackguard Slotman," he thought. "There
is something about that man--snake--toad--something uncanny. She's
there; she has money and he's out for money. If I can sit here and tell
myself that I have scared Slotman from offending and annoying her again,
I am an idiot. When there's money to be gained, a man like Slotman will
want a lot of scaring off it."

A week had passed since Marjorie's visit.

Hugh sent for his housekeeper, Mrs. Morrisey.

"Mrs. Morrisey, I am going to London."

"Oh, Mr. Alston, when the men are--"

"The men are all right. I have to go to London on business."

"Very queer and restless he's been," Mrs. Morrisey thought. "I never
known him like it before. When I thought he was in love with that pretty
little Miss Linden and wanting to marry her, he was not a bit like he is
now. He kept cheerful and smiling, and now; forever on the move. No
sooner does he get here than back to London he wants to go."

"Shall you be away for long, sir?"

"I don't know," said Hugh. "Perhaps; perhaps not, I can't say."

"I see. Very good, sir. I'll see to things, of course. And about
letters, perhaps you won't want them forwarded as you didn't last time,
and--"

"I shall want every letter forwarded, the very hour it arrives," said
Hugh quickly.

"Very good, sir. Where shall I send them to?"

"I don't know yet. I'll wire you an address."

Yes, he must go to London. He could not go