`Is she far gone?' he asked.

`She's going like wax,' Paul answered; `but cheerful -- lively!'

He bit his lip. After a minute he rose.

`Well, I'll be going,' he said. `I'll leave you this halfcrown.'

`I don't want it,' Dawes muttered.

Morel did not answer, but left the coin on the table.

`Well,' he said, `I'll try and run in when I'm back in Sheffield. Happen you might like to see my brother-in- law? He works in Pyecrofts.'

`I don't know him,' said Dawes.

`He's all right. Should I tell him to come? He might bring you some papers to look at.'

The other man did not answer. Paul went. The strong emotion that Dawes aroused in him, repressed, made him shiver.

He did not tell his mother, but next day he spoke to Clara about this interview. It was in the dinner-hour. The two did not often go out together now, but this day he asked her to go with him to the Castle grounds. There they sat while the scarlet geraniums and the yellow calceolarias blazed in the sunlight. She was now always rather protective, and rather resentful towards him.

`Did you know Baxter was in Sheffield Hospital with typhoid?' he asked.

She looked at him with startled grey eyes, and her face went pale.

`No,' she said, frightened.

`He's getting better. I went to see him yesterday -- the doctor told me.'

Clara seemed stricken by the news.

`Is he very bad?' she asked guiltily.

`He has been. He's mending now.'

`What did he say to you?'

`Oh, nothing! He seems to be sulking.'

There was a distance between the two of them. He gave her more information.

She went about shut up and silent. The next time they took a walk together, she disengaged herself from his arm, and walked at a distance from him. He was wanting her comfort badly.

`Won't you be nice with me?' he asked.

She did not answer.

`What's the matter?' he said, putting his arm across her shoulder.

`Don't!' she said, disengaging herself.