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“Doesn’t he?” asked Calder, with apparent sympathy and a covert sad amusement.

“Mr. Wentworth,” said Mrs. Marland, approaching, “I believe it’s actually a fact that you’ve been here a week and have never yet been to the Pool.”

At this fateful word, Calder looked embarrassed, Charlie raised his head from the hammock, and Millie glanced involuntarily towards him.

“We must take you,” pursued Mrs. Marland, “this very evening. You’ll come, Miss Bushell?”

“I don’t think I care very much about the Pool,” said Millie.

“We won’t let Mr. Merceron take you in his canoe this time.”

Charlie rolled out of the hammock and came up to them.

“You must take us to the Pool. I don’t believe you’ve been there since you came back. Poor Agatha will quite—“

“Agatha?” exclaimed Calder.

“Agatha Merceron, you know. Why, haven’t you heard—?”

“Oh, ah! Yes, of course. I beg your pardon.”

“I hate that beastly Pool,” said Charlie.

“How can you?” smiled Mrs. Marland. “You used to spend hours there every evening.”

Charlie glanced uneasily at Calder, who turned very red.

“Times have changed, have they?” Mrs. Marland asked archly. “You’ve got tired of looking in vain for Agatha?”

“Oh, all right,” said Charlie crossly, “we’ll go after tea.”

Anything seemed better than this rallying mood of Mrs. Marland’s.

Presently the two young men went off together to play a game at billiards; but after half a dozen strokes Charlie plumped down in a chair.

“I say, Calder, old chap, how do you feel?” he asked.

Calder licked his cigar meditatively.

“Better,” said he at last.

“Oh!”

“And you?”

“Worse–worse every day. I can’t stand it, old chap. I shall go back.”

“What, to her?”

“Yes.”

“That’s hardly sticking to our bargain, you know.”

“But, hang it, what’s the good of our both cutting her?”

“Oh, I thought you did it because you were disgusted with her. That was my reason.”

“So it was mine, but—“

“Probably she’s got some other fellow by now,” observed Calder calmly.

“The devil!” cried Charlie. “What makes you think so?”

“Oh, nothing. I know her way, you see.”

“You think she’s that sort of girl? Good heavens!”

“Well, if she wasn’t, I’d like to know where you’d be, my friend. I shouldn’t have the honor of your acquaintance.”

Charlie ignored this point.

“And yet you wanted, to marry her?”

“I dare say I was an ass–like better men before me and–er–since me.”

“Hang it!” cried Charlie. “I’m sick of the whole thing. I’m sick of life. I’m sick of all the nonsense of it. For two straws I’d have done with it, and marry Millie Bushell.”

“What! Look here, Charlie–“

Calder left his sentence unfinished.

“Well?” said Charlie.

“If,” said Calder slowly, “there are any girls, either down here or in London, whom you’re quite sure you’ll never want to marry, I should like to be introduced to one of ’em, Charlie, if you’ve no objections.”

“What do you mean?”

“Why, in fact, during this last week, Charlie, I have come to have a great esteem for Miss Bushell. There’s about her a something–a solidity—“

“She can’t help that, poor girl.”

“A solidity of mind,” said Calder, a little stiffly.

“Oh, I beg pardon. But I say, Calder, what are you driving at?”

“Charlie! Charlie!” sounded from outside. “Tea’s ready.”

Calder rose and took Charlie by the arm.

“Should I be safe,” he asked solemnly, “in allowing myself to fall in love with Miss Bushell, or are you likely to step in again?”

“You mean it? Honor bright, Calder?”

“Yes.”

“Where’s Bradshaw? By Jove, where’s Bradshaw?”

“Bradshaw? What the devil has Bradshaw—-?”

“Why, a train, man–a train to town.”

“I don’t want to go to town, bless the man—“

“You! No, but I do. To town, Calder–to Agatha, you old fool.”

“Oh, that’s your lay?”

“Yes, of course. I couldn’t go back on you, but if you’re off—“

“Charlie, old fellow, think again.”

“Go to the deuce! Where’s that—?”

“Charlie, Charlie! Tea!”

“Hang tea!” he cried; but Calder dragged him off, telling him that to-morrow would do for Bradshaw.

At tea Charlie’s spirits were very much better, and it was observed that Calder Wentworth paid marked attention to Millie Bushell, so that, when they started for the Pool, Millie was prevailed upon to be one of the party, on the understanding that Mr. Went worth would take care of her. This time the expedition went off more quietly than it had previously, but at the last moment the ladies declared that they would, be late for dinner if they waited till it was time for Agatha Merceron to come.