"After all, what is the good of hiding it from him?"

A laugh from Austin. "You think we ought to put him out of his misery
at once?"

It was real! Those two were talking in flesh and blood on the terrace.
They were talking of him. His misery! That had but one meaning. And the
devil laughed! Unconsciously his grip tightened on the butt of the
pistol. He listened.

"Yes," said Viviette. "It would be kinder."

"I stick to the birthday idea. It would be more dramatic."

"The damned villain!" Dick muttered.

"I want to-day," said Viviette.

"And I want to-morrow."

"You speak as if you were my lord and master," said Viviette, in the
mocking tones Dick knew so well.

"No other man shall be if I can help it."

The clear, young masterful voice rang down the gallery. Dick slid his
chair noiselessly to the side of the screen which hid him from the
terrace-window, and, bending down low, peered round the edge. He saw
them laughing, flushed, silhouetted against the green, distant trees.
Austin was looking at her with the light of passion in his eyes. She