cause, that she sacrificed the inestimable jewel of her honour? He
laughed through clenched teeth at a situation so bitterly ironical.
Presently he would talk to her. She should realise what she had done,
and he would wish her joy of it. First, however, there was something
else to do. He flung himself wearily into the chair at his
writing-table, took up a pen and began to write.




CHAPTER XIX

THE TRUTH


To Captain Tremayne, fretted with impatience in the diningroom,
came, at the end of a long hour of waiting, Sylvia Armytage. She
entered unannounced, at a moment when for the third time he was on
the point of ringing for Mullins, and for a moment they stood
considering each other mutually ill at ease. Then Miss Armytage
closed the door and came forward, moving with that grace peculiar
to her, and carrying her head erect, facing Captain Tremayne now
with some lingering signs of the defiance she had shown the
members of the court-martial.

"Mullins tells me that you wish to see me," she said the merest
conventionality to break the disconcerting, uneasy silence.

"After what has happened that should not surprise you," said
Tremayne. His agitation was clear to behold, his usual