He tried to speak, but somehow could find no words.  She looked up at him in surprise.  It was too dark to see his face, but something in the tenseness of his tall figure seemed to tell her a great deal, She spoke his name in a whisper.

“Mr. Kettering!”

He laid his hand on her shoulder.  He spoke slowly, with averted face.

“Mrs. Challoner, if I were a strong man I should say that you and I must never meet again.  You are married—­unhappily, you think now; but, somehow—­somehow I don’t want to believe that.  Give him another chance, will you?  We all make mistakes, you know.  Give him another chance, and then, if that fails——­” He did not finish.  He waited a moment, standing silently beside her; then he went away out into the darkness and left her there alone.

Christine stood listening to the sound of his footsteps on the gravel drive.  He seemed to take a long while to reach the gate, she thought mechanically; it seemed an endless time till she heard it slam behind him.

But even then she did not move; she just stood staring into the darkness, her heart fluttering in her throat.

She would have said that she had only loved one man—­the man whom she had married; but now. . . .  Suddenly she covered her face with her hands, and, turning, ran into the house and upstairs to her room, shutting and locking the door behind her.

CHAPTER XXI

THE COMPACT

Down in the drawing-room things were decidedly uncomfortable.

Gladys sat by the tea-table, enjoying her tea no less for the fact that Jimmy was walking up and down like a wild animal, waiting for Christine to return.

Secretly Gladys was rather amused at the situation.  She considered that whatever Jimmy suffered now, it served him right.  She blamed him entirely for the estrangement between himself and his wife.  She had never liked him very much, even in the old days, when she had quarrelled with him for being so selfish; she could not see that he had greatly improved now, as she watched him rather quizzically.

After a moment: 

“You’ll wear the carpet out,” she said practically,

Jimmy stood still.

“Why doesn’t Christine come back?” he demanded.  “What’s she doing with that fool Kettering?”

“He isn’t a fool,” said Gladys calmly.  “I call him an exceedingly nice man.”

Jimmy’s eyes flashed.

“I suppose you’ve been encouraging him to come here and dangle after my wife.  I thought I could trust you.”

Gladys looked at him unflinchingly.

“I thought I could trust you, too,” she said serenely.  “And apparently I was mistaken.  You’ve spoilt Christine’s life, and you deserve all you get.”

“How dare you talk to me like that?”

She laughed.

“I dare very well.  I’m not afraid of you, Jimmy.  I know too much about you.  Christine married you because she loved you; she thought there was nobody like you in all the world.  It’s your own fault if she has changed her mind.”