impotence, did not at all make her miserable. Evidently, however,
he had created our relations differently; evidently he had set
himself to their amelioration. There was portent in it; things
seemed to be closing in. I bit off a quarter of an inch of wooden
pen-handle in considering whether or not I should mention it in my
letter to John, and decided that it would be better just perhaps to
drop a hint. Though I could not expect John to receive it with any
sort of perturbation. Men are different; he would probably think
Tottenham well enough able to look after himself.

I had embarked on my letter, there at the end of a corner-table of
the saloon, when I saw Dacres saunter through. He wore a very
conscious and elaborately purposeless air; and it jumped with my
mood that he had nothing less than the crisis of his life in his
pocket, and was looking for me. As he advanced towards me between
the long tables doubt left me and alarm assailed me. 'I'm glad to
find you in a quiet corner,' said he, seating himself, and confirmed
my worst anticipations.

'I'm writing to John,' I said, and again applied myself to my pen-
handle. It is a trick Cecily has since done her best in vain to
cure me of.

'I am going to interrupt you,' he said. 'I have not had an
opportunity of talking to you for some time.'

'I like that!' I exclaimed derisively.

'And I want to tell you that I am very much charmed with Cecily.'