He met her at last by chance.  Mrs. Riddel bowed coldly and would have passed on, but the Major had already stopped, and was making wild and unmerited statements about the weather.

“It is seasonable,” she said, simply.

The Major agreed with her, and with a strong-effort regained his composure.

“I was just going to turn back,” he said, untruthfully; “may I walk with you?”

“I am not going far,” was the reply.

With soldierly courage the Major took this as permission; with feminine precision Mrs. Riddel walked about fifty yards and then stopped.  “I told you I wasn’t going far,” she said sweetly, as she held out her hand.  “Goodby.”

“I wanted to ask you something,” said the Major, turning with her.  “I can’t think what it was.

They walked on very slowly, the Major’s heart beating rapidly as he told himself that the lady’s coldness was due to his neglect of the past few weeks, and his wrath against Halibut rose to still greater heights as he saw the cruel position in which that schemer had placed him.  Then he made a sudden resolution.  There was no condition as to secrecy, and, first turning the conversation on to indoor amusements, he told the astonished Mrs. Riddel the full particulars of the fatal game.  Mrs. Riddel said that she would never forgive them; it was the most preposterous thing she had ever heard of.  And she demanded hotly whether she was to spend the rest of her life in refusing Mr. Halibut.

“Do you play high as a rule?” she inquired, scornfully.

“Sixpence a game,” replied the Major, simply.

The corners of Mrs. Riddel’s mouth relaxed, and her fine eyes began to water; then she turned her head away and laughed.  “It was very foolish of us, I admit,” said the Major, ruefully, “and very wrong.  I shouldn’t have told you, only I couldn’t explain my apparent neglect without.”

“Apparent neglect?” repeated the widow, somewhat haughtily.

“Well, put it down to a guilty conscience,” said the Major; “it seems years to me since I have seen you.”

“Remember the conditions, Major Brill,” said Mrs. Riddel, with severity.

“I shall not transgress them,” replied the Major, seriously.

Mrs. Riddel gave her head a toss, and regarded him from the corner of her eyes.

“I am very angry with you, indeed,” she said, severely.  The Major apologized again.  “For losing,” added the lady, looking straight before her.

Major Brill caught his breath and his knees trembled beneath him.  He made a half-hearted attempt to seize her hand, and then remembering his position, sighed deeply and looked straight before him.  They walked on in silence.

“I think,” said his companion at last, “that, if you like, you can get back at cribbage what you lost at chess.  That is, of course, if you really want to.”

“He wouldn’t play,” said the Major, shaking his head.