He has let
me see plainly that my money has influenced him--and, although
Englishmen are fools, in his class they are ridiculously honorable. I've
got him!" and she laughed aloud. "It is all safe, he will not break the
bargain!"
So she wrote an interesting note to Mr. Hanbury-Green with a pencil on
one of the blocks which she kept lying about for any sudden use--and
then strolled into the house for an envelope.
And, as John Derringham lay in the darkened room upstairs, he presently
heard her joyous voice as she played tennis with his secretary, and the
reflection he made was:
"Good Lord, how thankful I should be that at least I do not love her!"
Then he clenched his hands, and his aching thoughts escaped the iron
control under which since his engagement he had tried always to keep
them, and they went back to Halcyone. He saw again with agonizing
clearness her little tender face, when her soft, true eyes had melted
into his as she whispered of love.
"This is what God means in everything." Well, God had very little to do
with himself and Cecilia Cricklander!
And then he suddenly seemed to see the brutishness of men.
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