“Don’t talk about him; I don’t want to talk about him.”

But Gladys persisted.

“It isn’t too late; you can have the time all over again by starting afresh, and trying to wipe out the past.  You’re so young.  Why, Jimmy is only a boy; you’ve got all your lives before you.”  She got up and went round to where Christine was sitting.  She put an arm about her shoulders.  “Why don’t you forgive him, and start again?  Give him another chance, dear, and have a second honeymoon.”

Christine pushed her away; she started up with burning cheeks.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.  Leave me alone—­oh, do leave me alone.”  She ran from the room.

She lay awake half the night thinking of what Gladys had said.  She tried to harden her heart against Jimmy.  She tried to remember only that he had married her out of pique; that he cared nothing for her—­that he did not really want her.  As a sort of desperate defence she deliberately thought of Kettering; he liked her, she knew.  She was not too much of a child to understand what that look in his eyes had meant, that sudden pressure of his hand on hers.

And she liked him, too.  She told herself defiantly that she liked him very much; that she would rather have been with him over at Heston that afternoon than up in town with Jimmy.  Kettering at least sought and enjoyed her society, but Jimmy——­

She clenched her hands to keep back the blinding tears that crowded to her eyes.  What was she crying for?  There was nothing to cry for; she was happy—­quite happy; she was away from Jimmy—­away from the man whose presence had only tortured her during those last few days; she was at home—­at Upton House, and Kettering was there whenever she wanted him.  She hoped he would come in the morning again; that he would come quite early.  After breakfast she wandered about the house restlessly, listening for the sound of his car in the drive outside; but the morning dragged away and he did not come.

Christine ate no lunch; her head ached, she said pettishly when Gladys questioned her.  No, she did not want to go out; there was nowhere to go.

And all the time her eyes kept turning to the window again and again restlessly.

Gladys did not know what to do; she was hoping and praying in her heart that Kettering would do as she had asked him, and stay away.  What was the good of him coming again?  What was the good of him making himself indispensable to Christine?  The day passed wretchedly.  Once she found Christine huddled up on the sofa crying; she was so miserable, she sobbed; nobody cared for her; she was so lonely, and she wanted her mother.

Gladys did all she could to comfort her, but all the time she was painfully conscious of the fact that had Kettering walked into the room just then there would have been no more tears.

Sometimes she thought that it only served Jimmy Challoner right; sometimes she told herself that this was his punishment—­that Fate was fighting him with his own weapons, paying him back in his own coin; but she knew such thoughts were mere foolishness.