ng now. It's currish! At least I thought you
had some spark of chivalry in you! But you won't make the test because
you know I've spoken truth. You're afraid. If you want to prove to
yourself she's the angel you think her, then make the test. Ask her
before me in any form of words you like. Either that or take my word!"

"I'll not ask her that."

"Then at least come with me to see her, and satisfy yourself indirectly
that I've spoken the truth when I tell you you're living on a volcano.
Play the game, Clifford, play the game!"

Riviere took up his hat and stick.

"We'll go to see Miss Verney now," he answered.

Husband and wife drove together to the nursing home to see Elaine. But a
nurse informed them decisively that Fraulein Verney could receive no
visitors; the excitement of the afternoon had been too much for her
slowly returning strength, and Dr Hegelmann had ordered her absolute
quietude. To-morrow, perhaps, she might be allowed to receive her
friends--or perhaps the day after to-morrow.

"I intend to call to-morrow morning," said Olive to her husband.

"I too."

"Shall we say 10.30?"

"If you wish."

"Then call for me at the Quisisana at ten o'clock.... In the meantime, I
leave it to your sense of honour not to communicate with Miss Verney."

"Agreed."

"You needn't trouble to see me to my hotel. I'll go back in the taxi."

It was a night of very troubled thought for all three. To Riviere, with
his complex, many-layered nature, especially so. The one inevitable,
clean-cut solution to all this tangle of circumstance seemed farther off
than ever.

If Riviere had been a man of Larssen's temperament, difficulties would
have been smoothed away like hills under the drive of a high-powered
car. Lars Larssen would have said to himself: "Which woman do I want?"
and having settled that point, would have jammed on the levers and shot
his car straight forward without the slightest regard for any other
vehicle or pedestrian on his road. Were any obstacle in his path, so
much the worse for the obstacle.

If Larssen under similar circumstances had wanted Elaine he would have
taken her then and there and left Olive to do whatever she pleased. If
he had wanted Olive, he would have thrown Elaine in the discard without
a moment's remorse. Decisions are easy for such a man as Larssen,
because the burden of scruples has been pitched aside.

Riviere, on the other hand, was cursed with scruples--as Olive had
phrase