well as its consequences, must be trivial. It was intriguing, but
no one could imagine it to be important. As Merriman cycled
eastward through France his interest in the affair gradually waned,
and when, a fortnight later, he reached England, he had ceased to
give it a serious thought

But the image of Miss Coburn did not so quickly vanish from his
imagination, and many times he regretted he had not taken an
opportunity of returning to the mill to renew the acquaintanceship
so unexpectedly begun.



CHAPTER 2

AN INTERESTING SUGGESTION

About ten o'clock on a fine evening towards the end of June, some
six weeks after the incident described in the last chapter, Merriman
formed one of a group of young men seated round the open window of
the smoking room in the Rovers' Club in Cranbourne Street. They
had dined together, and were enjoying a slack hour and a little
desultory conversation before moving on, some to catch trains to
the suburbs, some to their chambers in town, and others to round
off the evening with some livelier form of amusement. The Rovers
had premises on the fourth floor of a large building near the
Hippodrome. Its membership consisted principally of business and
professional men, but there was also a sprinkling of members of
Parliament, political secretaries, and minor government officials,
who, though its position was not ideal, were attracted to it because