It would be his first visit to the high racecourse on the downs--and--and he might find Stella Croyle among the company.

It would be a little easier for him and for her too, if they met this second time in a house of many visitors.

He had no comfortable news to give to her, and he had shrunk from seeking her out in the Bayswater Road.

Wrap the truth in words however careful, he could not but wound her.

Yet sooner or later she must hear of his return, and avoidance of her would but tell the story more cruelly than his lips.
"Yes, I will gladly come," he said, "if I may come down on the first day." He was delayed in London until midday, and so motored after luncheon through Guildford and Chiddingfold and Petworth to Rackham Park.