'This is ridiculous,' said Margaret. 'Give it to me!' Lushington had no choice, and besides, he needed his right hand for his

nose, which was getting the better of him again. He let go, and

Margaret lifted the bicycle into the body of the car herself, though

Logotheti tried to help her.

'Now, get in,' she said to Lushington. 'We'll take you as far at the

Chaville station.' 'Thank you,' he answered. 'I am quite able to walk.' He presented such a lamentable appearance that he would have hesitated

to get into the car with Margaret even if they had been on good terms.

He was in that state of mind in which a man wishes that he might vanish

into the earth like Korah and his company, or at least take to his

heels without ceremony and run away. Logotheti had put up his glasses

and shield, over the visor of his cap, and was watching his rival's

discomfiture with a polite smile of pity. Lushington mentally compared

him to Judas Iscariot.

'Let me point out,' said the Greek, that if you won't accept a seat

with us, we, on our part, are much too anxious for your safety to leave

you here in the road. You must have been badly shaken, besides being

cut. If you insist upon walking, we'll keep beside you in the car. Then

if you faint, we can pick you up.' 'Yes,' assented Margaret, with a touch of malice, 'that is very

sensible.' Lushington was almost choking.

'Do let me give you another handkerchief,' said Logotheti,

sympathetically. 'I always carry a supply when I'm motoring--they are

so useful. Yours is quite spoilt.' A forcible expression rose to Lushington's lips, but he checked it, and

at the same time he wondered whether anybody he knew had ever been

caught in such a detestable situation. But Anglo-Saxons generally

perform their greatest feats of arms when they are driven into a corner

or have launched themselves in some perfectly hopeless undertaking. It

takes a Lucknow or a Balaclava to show what they are really made of.

Lushington was in a corner now; his temper rose and he turned upon his

tormentors. At the same time, perhaps under the influence of his

emotion, his nose stopped bleeding. It was scratched and purple from

the fall, but he found another handkerchief of his own and did what he

could to improve his appearance. His shoulders and his jaw squared

themselves as he began to speak and his eyes were rather hard and

bright.

'Look here,' he said, facing Logotheti, 'we don't owe each other

anything, I think, so this sort of thing had better stop. You've been

going about in disguise with Miss Donne, and I have been making myself

look like some one else in order to watch you. We've found each other

out and I don t fancy that we're likely to be very friendly after this.

So the best thing we can do is to part quietly and go in opposite

directions. Don't you think so?' The last question was addressed to Margaret. But instead of answering

at once she looked down and pushed some little lumps of dry mud about

with the toe of her shoe, as if she were trying to place them in a

symmetrical figure. It is a trick some young women have when they are

in doubt. Lushington turned to Logotheti again and waited for an

answer.




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