He felt quite calm and safe when, two days before he was expected at
Wendover, the idea came to him to propose himself to the Professor, so
as not to have to go and see him and endure his cynical reflections
_after_ he should be engaged to his hostess.
Mr. Carlyon had wired back, "Come if you like," and on this evening in
early June John Derringham arrived at the orchard house.
Cheiron made no allusion to the matter that had caused them to part with
some breezy words upon his old pupil's side. Mrs. Cricklander or
Wendover might not have existed; their talk was upon philosophy and
politics, and contained not the shadow of a woman--even Halcyone was not
mentioned at all.
Whitsuntide fell late that year, at the end of the first week in June,
and the spring having been exceptionally mild, the foliage was all in
full beauty of the freshest green.
It was astonishingly hot, and every divine scent of the night came to
John Derringham as he went out into the garden before going to bed. A
young setting half-moon still hung in the sky, and there were stars.
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