The drive home was an absolutely silent one. Miles, yielding to the influence of champagne and the late excitement, fell into a disturbed doze, from which Arnold and Nora made no attempt to arouse him. They sat opposite each other in the half-light, avoiding each other’s eyes. Thus they reached the gloomy little house which was Nora’s home. "I had better help him upstairs," Arnold said quietly. "We must make as little fuss as possible." Nora consented with a brief inclination of the head. She was past all struggle against circumstances. Between them they succeeded in piloting Miles up the endless flights. He seemed, quite unconscious of his state, and talked loudly and incessantly, so that all hope of bringing him to his room unobserved was doomed as vain. Nevertheless, stunned and indifferent as she was, Nora started back involuntarily as Wolff met them in the passage. He carried a candle in his hand, and the light reflected on his pale, exhausted face fell also on Miles, and revealed enough of the truth. He glanced away at Nora, and from Nora to Arnold. His expression betrayed no feeling, but she felt that he was trying to read into the very depths of their souls. "Please come in here," he said quietly. He led the way into the drawing-room and switched on the light, and they followed him without protest. "Tell me what happened," he commanded. Arnold made a movement as though he would have spoken, but Wolff stopped him with a courteous but decided gesture. "I wish Miles to tell me—if he can," he said. Miles lifted his hanging head. A silly self-satisfaction twisted his unsteady lips. "I can tell you right enough," he said, "only I’ll sit down, if you don’t mind, I feel so infernally shaky. It was Bauer, you know. I was having my supper when I heard him and another fellow talking, and though I’m not good at the jargon I caught the drift of what he was saying. It was about a woman. He said if he were her husband he would make an end of such a dirty scandal, and put a bullet through some one or other’s head. You can fancy that I pricked up my ears, and I turned and saw that he was pointing at Nora and Arnold. That was too much for me. I got up and asked what he meant. He told me—and I swear it wasn’t nice. He said——" Wolff lifted his hand. "I don’t want to hear that," he said. "Go on." "Well, I knocked him down, and there was the devil of a row!" Miles laughed unsteadily. "The silly fools wanted me to fight a duel over it!" he added. "And you——?" "I told them I wasn’t going to make such a d——d idiot of myself." Wolff said nothing for a moment. His whole face had stiffened, and he was looking at Miles from head to foot. "And after that they called you a coward?" he asked, at last. "Some rot like that——" "And they were right. You are a coward—the vilest, most pitiful coward I have ever met." "Wolff!"