"Old fellow, if I seem a brute at times, I have very good reason. It is hard, Lomax, to have to go on day after day without telling one's troubles to a living soul.--Your case and mine run on all fours." "Your case and mine?" repeated Griff. "What do you mean?" The other checked himself. "There are some things best left untold. Chuck another log on the fire, will you?" Another silence followed. Griff could stand it no longer, and rose to leave. "Man, you're clean daft," he said irritably, "What is the use of asking you what I am to do?" Roddick gripped the arm of his chair. "Do?" he cried, with sudden energy. "If you take warning from me, you'll choose the nearest road to happiness, and have done with it. Wait, and wait, and wait, till you're sick with effort and half dead with hunger; yes, wait if you like, and be hanged to you--but you'll regret it." "I begin to understand," muttered Griff. "Roddick, why did you never hint at this before?" "Hint? I've hinted at nothing; I can't, for the girl's sake. Look here, Lomax," he added, more sanely, "if your mother is really a friend to you, and as sensible as you think her, she'll give you her blessing. Cut and run--it isn't orthodox advice, but it's level-headed. Cut and run, you fool; and get a look at happiness before you or the woman dies." Griff moved to the door. Clearly his host was not in a fit state either to give or to take advice, and his suggestions tallied altogether too closely with the promptings of inclination. "Good night, old man," he muttered; "we'll talk it over when--when you're more yourself. No, don't bother to come to the door with me; I found my way in without help, and I can go out the same way." He closed the door after him. Roddick moved swiftly to the window, and peered through. There was nothing to be seen. He rattled his hand against the glass with pitiful impotence. "You--devil!" he said, slowly. When Griff opened the front door, a storm of wind and rain struck him full in the face. He pushed his way out with a laugh; wind and rain were staunch old friends, and this sort of horse-play was to his liking. He had barely crossed the threshold, and was about to turn and pull to the door after him, when a thing leaped out of the darkness. Something hard and bony went round his neck; something flabby and wet pressed close to his lips. He put out his arms and grasped a bundle of rags. "It's cold and dark," said a voice. "And what call have you, Leo, to keep your true love waiting?" Griff thrust the loathsome thing away, not without effort--those lean arms round his neck gripped like a vice. A hollow laugh went up into the darkness, and from the mingled odours Griff singled out the reek of brandy.