Although she had got her arms round him again, Mabel could not stop Dick's voice. He had something to say and was determined to say it; felt wound up to go.

"Breaking your heart!" he commented contemptuously. "You have already broken his; but you will have Percy to mend yours."

"Percy! How dare you suggest such a thing!"

He looked at her astonished; was startled into absolute amazement at the indignation in her voice as she broke away from him.

"Dare! Well——"

"Percy!" She repeated the name scornfully. "You know I hate, detest, despise, loathe him."

Her face was so very expressive just then that there could be no doubt she was saying what she meant. Dick was quick to realize that. Was so astonished at the turn matters had taken that he could only ejaculate:

"Eh!"

A small word, but all he felt capable of shaping just then; was his way of expressing the unutterable mystification and astonishment which had gripped hold of him.

"You know it, Dick!" Boot on floor: tattoo resumed. "Don't stand there with that idiotic vacant look on your face, as if you were surprised to hear it."

Surprised! It was a feeble description; idiotic was distinctly better. He stood as one paralysed, listening whilst she excitedly continued:

"I have told you so dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions of times!"

Trust a woman if she picks up figures to shed them with a lavish hand! The blank look on Dick's face intensified. He shook his head in utter hopelessness; the mystery was too much for him. He was dealing with a woman, and—and—well, he was only an average specimen of a man after all!

"Do I sleep?" He found voice at last; quoted: "Do I dream? Or are visions about?"

"I felt mad when I got the letter to say you insisted on the Chantrelles coming here for Christmas. But I didn't like to disappoint you, Dick, the moment of your home-coming, too."

"I insisted?" He was all eagerness as he blurted out the question. "Who says I insisted?"

"Amy in her letter said so——"

"The awful liar!"

"Nice way to talk of a lady!"

"Lady be—I mean she's not a lady if she set down such a thing in black and white. She so badgered me on the boat with hints for an invitation, that at last, in sheer desperation, I did ask them to come."

"Of course you did! And I wish they were a hundred thousand miles away!"

The blank look of astonishment crept on to his face again as he stuttered:

"You—wish—they——"

"Yes, yes, yes."

"Well, I'm——Do—you—mean—to—tell—me that you weren't glad to see them? When during the whole of the first dinner you did nothing but simper and make eyes and laugh with Percy, till the veriest fool in Christendom could have seen you were head over ears in love with him?"

"I hate him! I hate him! I Hate Him!"

His sister's vehemence partly cleared the clouds away. Acted as a douche on his bad temper, as a tonic to his good one; coolly he said:

"My dear girl, take my advice; you'd better send for the quack! Your mind's unhinged; that's what's the matter with you. You're fairly going dotty! If you hate him, what the dev—deuce did you want to pretend to make love to him for?"

"I d—did it"—she was sobbing in her handkerchief now; all the stiffening gone from her back—"to annoy P—Prince Ch—Ch—Charlie."

What there was left of the look of astonishment quite left his face. The scales fell; his eyes were fully opened. Thrusting his hands into his pockets he said vigorously, characteristically:

"Well—I'm—damned!"

Then hope sprang into his eyes; filled his bosom. There was a tangle somewhere, but he was getting his fingers on the ends: he needed to unravel it. Walking over to, he sat beside his sister, who was sobbing on the sofa.

"Just hold up the water supply, old girl." He spoke with all a brother's brutality. "Turn off the tap, and talk coherently, if it isn't too great a tax. I've only got a man's brain, so you might make an effort and leave off conundruming. The way you women twist up things—well, there! You seem to take a positive delight in making troubles for yourselves and everybody else; put up obstacles and cry because you can't get over them. Why did you want to annoy Masters?"

"He insul—sul—sul—ted me so."

Once more a look of amazement crept on Dick's face as he repeated:

"He—insulted—you—so?"

The idea of Prince Charlie's insulting a woman was—well, he almost laughed as he said:

"For many weeks past he had not seen you; for many weeks past I have been his close companion. During all that time he has spoken of you to me as if you were a goddess, instead of being a little devil with a temper vile enough to provoke a saint. He insult you!"

Then he did laugh—heartily. Began to see that there was a path out of the difficulty—it only needed finding. Let him find it—that was all!

"He c—c—could not have thought m—m—much of me, or he would not have f—f—flirted with every girl on board."

"Flirted! Prince Ch——" His laugh broke out again; into a roar this time. "Why, he was the most taciturn beggar on the boat, to everyone but me! Flirt! That's good. Beyond a 'Good morning,' I never heard him address a woman. If one at table asked him for the water-bottle, he acted as if she had done him a deadly wrong in speaking to him! He was not even on pass-the-salt-and-pepper terms with a lady on board. Flirt! This is really too rich!"

The laughter rang out again. His anger was all gone; his face was all sunshine. There was a comedy side to the affair, after all! That was the side of things Dick was sure to reach sooner or later; his nature tended that way. It served to detect the merest trace of humour in things.

"Dick!"

A misgiving was seizing her. She was putting two and two together and making a decidedly unpleasant four of it; said:

"Isn't it true that he made violent love to Amy directly she came on board?"

"To Amy! To Amy! If there was one woman he avoided—positively avoided—more than another, it was Amy. He seemed to take a dislike to her directly she was introduced; and in justice to her, I am bound to say that she reciprocated. From her point of view, I suppose that was showing proper feeling. She was for ever trying to poison my mind against him. But I knew him, and I knew her. She preached to the winds!"

Dick had to pause. Having got hold of the offending root, his indignation was rising, getting the better of him.

"Make love to her!" he repeated. "Good Heavens! Beyond 'Good morning' and 'Good night' I don't suppose he spoke a hundred words to her on the whole voyage home."

"Then—I—I—have been made a fool——"

"Rather an easy task, I should imagine," interjected Dick, with truly brotherly contempt. "But who is responsible for the job? Whoever it was, couldn't have been killed with the hard work!"

"Wait."

She ran out of the room to her bedroom. Quickly opening a drawer, made a moment's search therein. Then returned with a letter in her hand—triumphant.

"It is not altogether correct form for a woman to show a man another woman's letter, but read that."

Dick sat down at the table and she smoothed the document out before him with a degree of gusto. It was her warrant of justification; the only title-deed she possessed to the behaviour of which she had been guilty.

He read it. His face became worth watching as he did so. Amusement, loathing, astonishment, all held sway on it at odd times. Despite his disgust though, there was big hope in the sediment. As he concluded he whistled his favourite "Rule Britannia."

"Well?"

She had been eagerly watching him. Read the answer in his face, but woman-like asked what she already knew:

"Isn't it true?"

"True!" He tossed the letter back to her as he answered. "From beginning to end it is a tissue of deliberate lies."

She heard rapturously. The moral worth of her friend Amy and the ultimate destination of Amy's soul, were matters for future commiseration. They sank into insignificance before the resuscitation of her faith in Masters. That mighty edifice had been obscured by clouds; the clouds were clearing and the proud summit was peeping through.

So glad was she, that she positively revelled in the admission of her own gullibility; said joyously:

"Lies! And I believed them!"

"That doesn't astonish me! I used to think you were a sensible girl, but now—well, there! But there's more than mere lies in that letter."

"What?"

"You can't see it? And you think yourself cute! Can't you read between the lines?"

"What?"

"I told Amy of Prince Charlie's love for you; that started the ball. What does she set herself to do? Poison your mind against him. Why? Note the lie about Percy's turning white when——Good Lord, you can see through it now, can't you? You don't want spectacles for that? Your own common sense will tell you—though you certainly don't seem to have a large supply on hand."

"I—she wanted me—wanted her brother to——"

"That's it! You've got the hammer on the nail head at last! That accounts for her questioning me as to how you were left under the will; whether the money was settled on you or not."

"What a perfect pair of beasts!"

"Hear, hear!"

"And you invited them here! How could you? They are not fit people to have in the house!"

"I like that! Upon my word! See how gone you were on Percy at din——"

"Dick! If you ever dare to say——"

"Well, I must see about packing up——"

"Packing up! Don't let me think you quite a complete idiot, Dick!"

"The train goes at three-thir——"

"Dick!" She stamped her foot in anger. "Why do you want to make it worse for me than it need be by your stupidity. You perfect horror, you!"

"Stupidity runs in the family, I suppose. You have been mighty wise, haven't you? Um—you don't want me to go, then?"

"And leave me in this hopeless muddle alone? It wouldn't be commonly human—to say nothing of brotherly!"

"Oh, well." He affected a resigned air to hide his smiles. "I suppose I'll have to stop if you put it like that. I'll just walk up to Prince Charlie's place and tell him I shan't be able to go up with him."

"To—go—up—with—him?"

Dismay caused her to voice the question in instalments. Dick stooped, pretended to tie up his shoe-lace, some act was necessary to hide from her the amused look in his eyes.

"Yes. I'd like to say good-bye to the dear old chap. He'll probably go abroad and stop there. Maybe I shall never see him again."

"Abroad! Never—see——"

Then she stopped dead in the middle of what she was saying; stood as one dumbfounded. Dick's eyes in his averted head were twinkling and his mouth twitching. She certainly had some ground for the opinion she expressed of him.

He was a brute of a brother.