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He was conscious of a curious excitement, and only when he caught his breath was he aware that his heart was beating fast. As they neared the tent he heard voices within. They grew louder as he reached it one was a man's, loud, wrathful, the other was a woman's. It was not raised but it had a ring in it of defiance. The words Thresk could not hear, but he knew the woman's voice.
I thought you were going to catch the eight forty-five." "I felt lazy," answered Thresk. "I sent off some telegrams to put off my engagements." "Good," said Dick, and he sat down at the breakfast-table. As he poured out a cup of tea, Thresk said: "I think I heard you were over thirty." "Yes." "Thirty's a good age," said Thresk. "It looks back on youth," answered Dick.
Carruthers rose from the table and Jane Repton had no further word with Thresk that night. In the drawing-room Mrs. Carruthers led him from woman to woman, allowing him ten minutes for each one. "He might be Royalty or her pet Pekingese," cried Mrs. Repton in exasperation. For now that her blood had cooled she was not so sure that her advice had been good.
"I didn't dare to tell him," Stella pleaded, wringing her hands. "I didn't dare to lose him." "You tricked him," Thresk repeated; and at the note of anger in his voice Stella found herself again. "You accuse and condemn me?" she asked quietly. "Yes. A thousand times, yes," he exclaimed hotly, and she answered with another question winged on a note of irony: "Because I tricked him?
She did not interrupt but she sat with a look of keen expectancy upon her face. She did not know whither Pettifer was leading them but she was now sure that it was to some carefully pondered goal. "I have more than once briefed Thresk myself. He's a man of the highest reputation at the Bar, straightforward, honest; he enjoys a great practice, he is in Parliament with a great future in Parliament.
Stella's acquittal was inevitable on the evidence. There was much to show what provocation she had suffered, but there was no proof that she had yielded to it. On the contrary she had endured so long, the presumption must be that she would go on enduring to the end. And there was other evidence positive evidence given by Thresk which could not be gainsaid. Mr.
If he had only consented to come over in the morning and give her the chance of pleading with him! She went to the window and, drawing up the blind, leaned her head out and looked across the meadow. In the library one of the long windows stood open and the curtain was not drawn. The room was full of light. Henry Thresk was there.
But Thresk accounted for it by that decanter on the sideboard, in which the level of the whisky had been so noticeably lowered that evening. He was wrong however, for Ballantyne sprang to his feet. "You are going away to-night. You can do me a service." "Can I?" asked Thresk. He understood at last why Ballantyne had been at such pains to interest and amuse him. "Yes.
"That's true," and he spoke in the same strange mechanical voice he had used before. "That he was found dead outside his tent," Thresk added. "It's quite true," Repton agreed. "We are very sorry." "Sorry!" The exclamation burst from Thresk's lips. "Yes." Repton moved away from the chandelier. He had not looked at Thresk once since he had entered the room; nor did he look towards his wife.
"I wanted to be sure that all was right, Stella." "I gave you my word, Dick," she whispered and she wished him good-night again and waited till the sound of his footsteps had altogether died away. He went back to the house and found Thresk still at work in the library. "I don't want to interrupt you," he said, "but I must thank you again. I can't tell you what I owe you.
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