She clung to him fiercely, courting the pressure of his arms, the warm contact of his youth; while, in his inner mind, he renounced with energy the temptress Chloe and all her works, vowing to himself that he would give Daphne no cause, no pretext even, for jealousy, and would bear it patiently if she were still unjust and tormenting.
"Where have you been all day ?" said Daphne at last, disengaging herself, and brushing the tears away from her eyes--a little angrily, as though she were ashamed of them.
"I told you this morning.

I had a run with the Stoneshire hounds." "Whom did you meet there ?" "Oh, various old acquaintances.

Nobody amusing." He gave two or three names, his conscience pricking him.

Somehow, at that moment, it seemed impossible to mention Chloe Fairmile.
* * * * * About eleven o'clock that night, Daphne and Lady Barnes having just gone upstairs, Roger and a local Colonel of Volunteers who was dining and spending the night at Heston, were in the smoking-room.

Colonel Williams had come over to discuss Volunteer prospects in the neighbourhood, and had been delighted to find in the grandson of his old friend, Oliver Trescoe,--a young fellow whom he and others had too readily regarded as given over to luxury and soft living--signs of the old public spirit, the traditional manliness of the family.