Chapter 28 - Page 2

friends, in this way? I wanted to tell you that you needn't
feel--feel in the least unhappy about me."

A deep flush rose to his forehead. "Oh, I know--I know that--"
he declared hastily; and added, with a factitious animation:
"But thank you for telling me."

"There's nothing, is there," she continued, "to make our meeting
in this way in the least embarrassing or painful to either of
us, when both have found ...." She broke off, and held her hand
out to him. "I've heard about you and Coral," she ended.

He just touched her hand with cold fingers, and let it drop.
"Thank you," he said for the third time.

"You won't sit down?"

He sat down.

"Don't you think," she continued, "that the new way of ... of
meeting as friends ... and talking things over without ill-
will ... is much pleasanter and more sensible, after all?"

He smiled. "It's immensely kind of you to feel that."

"Oh, I do feel it!" She stopped short, and wondered what on
earth she had meant to say next, and why she had so abruptly
lost the thread of her discourse.

In the pause she heard him cough slightly and clear his throat.
"Let me say, then," he began, "that I'm glad too--immensely glad
that your own future is so satisfactorily settled."

She lifted her glance again to his walled face, in which not a
muscle stirred.

"Yes: it--it makes everything easier for you, doesn't it?"

"For you too, I hope." He paused, and then went on: "I want
also to tell you that I perfectly understand--"

"Oh," she interrupted, "so do I; your point of view, I mean."

They were again silent.

"Nick, why can't we be friends real friends? Won't it be
easier?" she broke out at last with twitching lips.

"Easier--?"

"I mean, about talking things over--arrangements. There are
arrangements to be made, I suppose?"

"I suppose so." He hesitated. "I'm doing what I'm told-simply
following out instructions. The business is easy enough,
apparently. I'm taking the necessary steps--"

She reddened a little, and drew a gasping breath. "The
necessary steps: what are they? Everything the lawyers tell
one is so confusing .... I don't yet understand--how it's
done."

"My share, you mean? Oh, it's very simple." He paused, and
added in a tone of laboured ease: "I'm going down to
Fontainebleau to-morrow--"

She stared, not understanding. "To Fontainebleau--?"

Her bewilderment drew from him his first frank smile. "Well--
I chose Fontainebleau--I don't know why ... except that we've
never been there together."

At that she suddenly understood, and the blood rushed to her
forehead. She stood up without knowing what she was doing, her