His face was pale, but he was master of himself.  Perhaps he had learned from Jake that fundamental lesson that those who would control others must first control themselves.  He still held her before him, but there was no violence in his hold.  Neither was there any tenderness.  It was rather of a judicial nature.

And oddly at that moment a sudden gleam of appreciation shot up in Toby’s eyes.  She stood up very straight and faced him unflinching.

“I don’t mind answering you,” she said.  “Why should I?  Someone will tell you sooner or later if I don’t.  She said that because she knew—­and she wanted you to know—­that I am not the sort of girl that men want to—­marry.”

She was quite white as she spoke the words, but she maintained her tense erectness.  Her eyes never stirred from his.

Bunny stood motionless, staring at her.  He looked as if he had been struck a blinding blow.

“What—­on earth—­do you mean?” he asked slowly at last.

The tension went out of Toby.  She broke into her funny little laugh.  “Oh, I won’t tell you any more!  I won’t!  She thinks I’m too attractive, that’s all.  I can’t imagine why; can you?  You never found me so, did you, Bunny?”

The old provocative sweetness flashed back into her face.  She went within the circle of his arms with a quick nestling movement as of a small animal that takes refuge after strenuous flight.  She was still panting a little as she leaned against him.

And Bunny relaxed, conscious of a vast relief that outweighed every other consideration.  “You—­monkey!” he said, folding her close.  “You’re playing with me!  How dare you torment me like this?  You shall pay for it to the last least farthing.  I will never have any mercy on you again.”

He kissed her with all the renewed extravagance of love momentarily denied, and the colour flooded back into Toby’s face as the dread receded from her heart.  She gave him more that day than she had ever given him before, and in the rapture of possession he forgot the ordeal that she had made him face.

Only later did he remember it—­her strange reticence, her odd stumbling words of warning, her curious attitude of self-defence.  And he felt as if—­in spite of his utmost resolution—­she had somehow succeeded in baffling him after all.

CHAPTER X

THE MYSTERY

It was late that evening that Bunny strolled forth alone to smoke a reminiscent pipe along his favourite glade of larches in Burchester Park.  He went slowly through the summer dusk, his hands behind him, his eyes fixed ahead.  He had had his way with Toby.  She had promised to marry him as soon as old Bishop’s retirement left the house in the hollow at his disposal.  But somehow, though he had gained his end, he was not conscious of elation.  Sheila Melrose’s words had disturbed him no less than Toby’s own peculiar interpretation of them.