And he, too, came to a resolution, but not of the same kind.

He would speak to Francis Markrute when they arrived on Friday night and he could get him quietly alone.

He would tell him that the whole thing was a ghastly failure, but as he had only himself to blame for entering into it he did not intend to reproach any one.

Only, he would frankly ask him to use his clever brain and invent some plan that he and Zara could separate, without scandal, until such time as he should grow indifferent, and so could come back and casually live in the house with her.

He was only a human man, he admitted, and the present arrangement was impossible to bear.