"Oh! they don't count."

"Thank you, Joyce."

She held out a pacifying hand. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be ungracious. But those women---- You know, you get rather attached to people when you've spoken and fought and been imprisoned side by side with them. I always feel rather mean; any one of them 'ud die for me, and I'm not at all sure I'd do the same for them. Everything's been different since Elsie got her freedom; it's easier to fight for a person than a principle."

"Are you weakening?"

"Heavens! No! I'm just showing you I should be honour-bound to stand by my fellows even if I lost all faith in the cause. I say, don't go on smoking cigarettes; ring the bell and make Dick give you a cigar.

He's in the house somewhere. I heard him come in a few minutes ago."

"I came to see you," I pointed out.

"But I'm dreadfully poor company to-night."

"I take you as I find you, in sickness and health, weal and woe----"

"Mr. Merivale!"

Her voice was very stern.

"You remember our wager?" I said, with a shrug of the shoulders.

"It was a joke," she retorted. "And not in very good taste. Oh, I was as much to blame as you were."

"But I was quite serious."

"Did you seriously think I should give up the Cause?"

"I offered very long odds. A twopenny ring--but you remember what they were."

"Are you any nearer winning?"

"I should like to think so."

"Because we haven't answered Mr. Rawnsley's time-arrangements in the House?"

"Oh, I've no doubt the reply has been posted."

She nodded significantly. "And they haven't found their hostages yet."

"But they've paid no ransom."

"It's an indurance test."

I got up to find myself a match. As I did so, I caught a glimpse of her left hand, wearing the scarab-ring; it disappeared for a moment, and to my surprise reappeared without the ring.

"Suppose we call the bet off?" she suggested. "It was all rather silly."

"Odds offered and taken and horses running. It's too late now. How did you find out the secret?"

"I didn't. My finger shrank and the ring came off three days ago when I was washing my hands."

"You didn't pull?"

"No."

"Show me."

"It was like this," she began, slipping the ring back on to the third finger. "Rather loose----"

I tightened the couplings before she saw what I was about.

"That's soon remedied. Come to me when the finger's nice and plump again, and I'll let it out."

A shadow of annoyance crossed her face.

"Now I shall have it cut," she said.

"You could have had that done three weeks ago. You could have thrown the thing away three days ago. You didn't do either."

A smile dimpled its way into her cheeks. "How old are you? Over forty?"

"What a way of looking at things!" I exclaimed. "Marlborough was fifty before he started his campaigns, Wren nearer fifty than forty before ever he put pencil to paper. You don't know the possibilities of virgin soil."

"I was wondering how long it was since you left school."

I got up and dusted the flecks of cigarette ash from my shirt.

"I'm going now," I said. "It's time you were in bed. Just one word before I go. You want to win this wager, don't you? So do I. Well, if you don't give yourself a holiday, you're going to break down and lose it."

Smiling mischievously, she got up and took my proffered hand.

"It'll be an ill-wind, then----"

"Damn the wager!" I burst out. "I don't want to win it at that price.

Joyce, if I say I'm beaten, will you be a good girl and go to bed and stay there? Win or lose, I can't bear to see you looking as ill as you are now."

She shook her head a little sadly. "I can't take a holiday now."

"You'll lose the wager."

She looked up swiftly into my face, and lowered her eyes.

"I don't know that I mind that much."

"Joyce!"

"But I can't take a holiday," she repeated.