Kettering coloured; he tried to refuse; he wanted to refuse; but somehow her brown eyes would not let him; somehow——­

“I shall be delighted,” he heard himself say.

He had not meant to say it; he would have given a great deal to recall the words as soon as they were spoken, but it was too late.  Another moment and they were in the house.

He looked round him with a sense of great pleasure.  It seemed a lifetime since he had been here; it was like coming home again to be here and with the woman he loved.  He looked at little Christine with wistful eyes.

“Gladys is out,” she said, “so you will have to put up with me alone; do you mind?”

“Do I mind!” She coloured beneath his gaze; her heart was beating fast.

He followed her across the hall.  He knew he was doing the weak thing; knew that he ought to turn on his heel and go away, but he knew that he intended staying.

An hour with Christine alone; it was worth risking something for to have that.  Christine opened the drawing-room door.

“We’ll have tea here,” she said; “it’s much more cosy.  I——­”

She stopped dead; her voice broke off into silence with a curious little jarring sound.

A man had risen from the sofa by the window; a tall young man, with a pale face and worried-looking eyes—­Jimmy Challoner!

CHAPTER XX

LOVE LOCKED OUT

Jimmy only glanced at Christine; his eyes went past her almost immediately to the man who was following her into the room; a streak of red crept into his pale face.

It was Kettering who recovered himself first; he went forward with outstretched hand.

“Well, I never!  We were just talking about you.”

His voice was quite steady, perfectly friendly, but his heart had given one bitter throb of disappointment at sight of Christine’s husband.  This was the end of their little half-hour together.  Perhaps it was Fate stepping in opportunely to prevent him making a fool of himself.

Jimmy and he shook hands awkwardly.  Jimmy had made no attempt to greet his wife.  One would have thought that they had met only an hour or two previously, to judge by the coolness of their meeting, though beneath her black frock Christine’s heart was racing, and for the first few moments she hardly knew what she was doing or what she said.

Jimmy looked ill; she knew that, and it gave her a faint little heartache; she avoided looking at him if she could help it.  She left the two men to entertain each other, and busied herself with the tea-tray.

Kettering rose to the occasion nobly.  He talked away as if this unwelcome meeting were a pleasure to him.  He did his best to put Christine at her ease, but all the time he was wondering how soon he could make his excuses and escape; how soon he could get out of this three-cornered situation, which was perhaps more painful to him than to either of his companions.