"I've been in love myself," Gilbert said, "but ... this is excessive. We ought to do something. Can't we get up a memorial or something?..." Ninian sat upright, pointing a finger at them. "You know, chaps," he exclaimed, "Roger's ashamed of himself. He didn't tell us 'til he'd got to the door, and then he damn well hooked it!" "He's been trapped," Gilbert said. "Females are always trapping chaps!..." "We ought to save him from himself!" Ninian stood up as he spoke. "But supposing he doesn't want to be saved?" Henry asked. "We'll save him all the same," Ninian answered. "Let's go on a deputation to him," Gilbert suggested. "We will put it reasonably to him. Well tell him that he mustn't do this thing.... Oh, Lord, coves, it's no good. This house is doomed. A female has done it!" "If it had been you, Gilbert, or Quinny," said Ninian, "I'd have thought it was natural. You're that sort! But old Roger ... well, there's no doubt about it, God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. Let's go to bed. I'm fed-up with everything!" 7 Henry switched off the light and got into bed. He shut his eyes and tried to sleep, but sleep would not come to him. He lay blinking at the ceiling for a while, and then he got up and went into his sitting-room and got out his manuscript and began to write. He wrote steadily for half-an-hour, and then he put down his pen and read over what he had written. "No," he said, crumpling the paper and throwing it into the wastepaper basket, "that won't do!" He walked about the room for a few minutes, and then he went back to bed, and lay there with his hands clasped about his head. "I don't see why I shouldn't get married myself," he said, and then he went to sleep. THE SEVENTH CHAPTER 1