He spoke not so much dispiritedly, but rather as though he was teaching himself a lesson which he must needs surely get by heart.  He lifted the reins and drove down the hill, past the factory and along the valley to the gates of Garples.  There he stopped the trap again.  For a moment Clarice fancied that the gates must be shut, but as she bent forward and looked across Drake, she saw that they were open.  She turned her eyes to her companion.  He was sitting bolt upright with an unfamiliar expression of irresolution upon his face, and he was doubtfully drawing the lash of the whip to and fro across the horse’s back.

Clarice felt that her life was in the balance.  ‘Yes,’ she whispered.

‘No!’ Drake almost shouted the word.  He turned the horse through the gates and drove in a gallop to the door of the house.  Clarice heard him draw a deep breath of relief as he jumped to the ground.  As he was pulling off his gloves in the hall, Clarice brushed past him and ran quickly up the stairs.  He was roused from his reverie by the arrival of the rest of the party.

Clarice sent word downstairs that she was tired and would not appear at supper.

But an hour later Sidney Mallinson found her seated by the open window.  She had not even taken off her hat or gloves.  Once or twice he seemed on the point of speaking, but she faced him steadily and her manner even invited his questions.  Mallinson turned away with the questions unasked.  But he lay long awake that night, thinking; and his resentment against Drake gained new fuel from his thoughts.  The frankness of his wife’s admiration for Drake had before this awakened his suspicions, and the suspicions had become certain knowledge.  He guessed, too, that to some degree Drake returned his wife’s inclination, and he began immediately on that account to set a higher value upon the possession of her than he had lately done.

Once Clarice heard him laugh aloud harshly.  He was thinking of the relationship in which he had set Drake to himself in that first novel which he had written.  Actually the relationship was reversed.  ’No, not yet,’ he said to himself.  But it would be, unless he could hit upon some plan.  The day was breaking when his plan came to him.

CHAPTER XV

The next morning Drake’s seat at the breakfast table was empty.

‘He caught the early train from Bentbridge,’ Captain Le Mesurier explained.  ’Business, I suppose.  He told me last thing yesterday night that he had to go.’

Clarice coloured and lowered her eyes to her plate.  Mallinson noticed her embarrassment, and took it for evidence of some secret understanding between her and Drake.  He became yet more firmly resolved to put his idea into action.

‘You are not in a hurry,’ said Captain Le Mesurier.  ’You had better stay the week out.’

Mallinson saw his wife raise her head quickly as though she was about to object, and immediately accepted the invitation.  Parliament would not meet for three weeks, he reckoned, since there were still the county members to be elected.