We have now come to the last fortnight of Tommy’s life.

CHAPTER XXXIV

A WAY IS FOUND FOR TOMMY

The moment for which he had tried to prepare himself was come, and Tommy gulped down his courage, which had risen suddenly to his mouth, leaving his chest in a panic.  Outwardly he seemed unmoved, but within he was beating to arms.  “This is the test of us!” all that was good in him cried as it answered his summons.

They began by shaking hands, as is always the custom in the ring.  Then, without any preliminary sparring, Lady Pippinworth immediately knocked him down; that is to say, she remarked, with a little laugh:  “How very stout you are getting!”

I swear by all the gods that it was untrue.  He had not got very stout, though undeniably he had got stouter.  “How well you are looking!” would have been a very ladylike way of saying it, but his girth was best not referred to at all.  Those who liked him had learned this long ago, and Grizel always shifted the buttons without comment.

Her malicious Ladyship had found his one weak spot at once.  He had a reply ready for every other opening in the English tongue, but now he could writhe only.

Who would have expected to meet her here? he said at last feebly.  She explained, and he had guessed it already, that she was again staying with the Rintouls; the castle, indeed, was not half a mile from where they stood.

“But I think I really came to see you,” she informed him, with engaging frankness.

It was very good of her, he intimated stiffly; but the stiffness was chiefly because she was still looking in an irritating way at his waist.

Suddenly she looked up.  To Tommy it was as if she had raised the siege.  “Why aren’t you nice to me?” she asked prettily.

“I want to be,” he replied.

She showed him a way.  “When I saw you steaming towards the castle so swiftly,” she said, dropping badinage, “the hope entered my head that you had heard of my arrival.”

She had come a step nearer, and it was like an invitation to return to the arbour.  “This is the test of us!” all that was good in Tommy cried once more to him.

“No, I had not heard,” he replied, bravely if baldly.  “I was taking a smart walk only.”

“Why so smart as that?”

He hesitated, and her eyes left his face and travelled downward.

“Were you trying to walk it off?” she asked sympathetically.

He was stung, and replied in words that were regretted as soon as spoken:  “I was trying to walk you off.”

A smile of satisfaction crossed her impudent face.

“I succeeded,” he added sharply.

“How cruel of you to say so, when you had made me so very happy!  Do you often take smart walks, Mr. Sandys?”

“Often.”

“And always with me?”

“I leave you behind.”