THE LAST COMBAT During these summer months Sidney Kirkwood's visits to the house in Clerkenwell Close were comparatively rare.

It was not his own wish to relax in any degree the close friendship so long subsisting between the Hewetts and himself, but from the day of Clara's engagement with Mrs.
Tubbs John Hewett began to alter in his treatment of him.

At first there was nothing more than found its natural explanation in regret of what had happened, a tendency to muteness, to troubled brooding; but before long John made it unmistakable that the young man's presence was irksome to him.

If, on coming home, he found Sidney with Mrs.Hewett and the children, a cold nod was the only greeting he offered; then followed signs of ill-humour, such as Sidney could not in the end fail to interpret as unfavourable to himself.

He never heard Clara's name on her father's lips, and himself never uttered it when John was in hearing.
'She told him what passed between us that night,' Sidney argued inwardly.