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Updated: June 29, 2025
He was learning to understand her, for though she showed no marked sign of displeasure he knew that she was not gratified. "No," he answered; "Miss Crestwick." She did not speak, but there was something in her manner that hinted at disdainful amusement. "I think you're hardly fair to her," he said. "It's possible," Millicent replied carelessly. "Does it matter?"
Crestwick produced a packet of letters which he had not opened yet and Lisle glanced at two business communications. The boulder kept off most of the snow, and the glare of the snapping branches, rising and falling with the gusts, supplied sufficient light. "Mine's from Bella; there's news in it," Crestwick remarked.
It was about nine o'clock in the evening, and Gladwyne's somewhat noisy guests were scattered about his house and the terrace in front of it. Several of them had gathered in the hall, and Bella Crestwick, Lisle's companion on the moors, stood, cigarette in hand, with one foot on the old-fashioned hearth-irons, frankly discussing him.
Lisle inquired. "Horribly stiff; but that's the worst. Why are you going on?" "Because the freighters should leave the Hudson Bay post to-morrow with their dog-teams. It's the only chance of sending out a letter I may get for a long while, and I want to write to Nasmyth." Crestwick shivered, glancing disconsolately at the snow; he shrank from the prospect of a two days' hurried march.
"I don't expect anything from you," Lisle informed him. "In proof of it, I'll mention that I called to tell Gladwyne he must keep you off of Jim Crestwick." He made a slip in the last few words, which the other quickly noticed. "Ordered him, in fact," he said. Lisle made no answer and Batley resumed: "You have some kind of a hold on Gladwyne; so have I. Of course, it's no news to you.
So far as I know, no respectable bank or finance broker would handle that kind of business." "But if the boy died before he succeeded to the property?" "Batley could cover the risk by making Crestwick take out an insurance policy in his favor." Lisle's face grew stern, and Nasmyth lay smoking in silence for a while. Then he broke out again: "It's intolerable!
You people would suffer a good deal, sooner than advertise yourselves through the law courts." "Crestwick isn't one of us," Gladwyne objected. "Then, as he aspires to be considered one, he'll go even farther than you would. None are so keen for the honor of the flock as those who don't strictly belong to the fold.
"That's true," asserted Crestwick. "I was a bit of an imbecile, and she's really hard to beat. She says if the life here's too tough for me I'm to come back and live with them. That's considerate, because in a way she can't want me, though I haven't the least doubt she'd make Carew put up with my company. It decides the question I'm not going."
Crestwick subsided with an indulgent grimace, but when they retired to their shelter Lisle turned upon him. "It struck me that those jokes of yours were in what you would call uncommonly bad form," he said. "It would be better if you didn't make any more of them." "Bella doesn't mind; she's used to me," Crestwick grinned. "I wasn't referring to Bella she has somebody to take care of her."
Gladwyne, however, was not wise enough to stop. "I think that is why there is some risk of his falling into bad hands that Crestwick girl isn't diffident," she went on. "I know the strong regard he has for you; but the girl sees a good deal of him, and a man is sometimes easily led where he does not mean to go." Millicent's cheeks burned.
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