They had reached the turn of the lane, and the light of the lamp which stood there fell upon them. Haworth broke off his words and stopped under the blaze. Murdoch saw his face darken with bitter passion. "Curse you!" he said. "Where did you get it?" Without comprehending him Murdoch looked down at his own hand at which the man was pointing, and saw in it the flower he had forgotten he held. "This?" he said, and though he did not know why, the blood leaped to his face. "Ay," said Haworth. "You know well enow what I mean. Where did you get it? Do you think I don't know the look on it?" "You may, or you may not," answered Murdoch. "That is nothing to me. I took it up without thinking of it. If I had thought of it I should have left it where it was. I have no right to it--nor you either." Haworth drew near to him. "Give it here!" he demanded, hoarsely. They stood and looked each other in the eye. Externally Murdoch was the calmer of the two, but he held in check a fiercer heat than he had felt for many a day. "No," he answered. "Not I. Think over what you are doing. You will not like to remember it to-morrow. It is not mine to give nor yours to take. I have done with my share of it--there it is." And he crushed it in his hand, and flung it, exhaling its fragrance, upon the ground; then turned and went his way. He had not intended to glance backward, but he was not as strong as he thought. He did look backward before he had gone ten yards, and doing so saw Haworth bending down and gathering the bruised petals from the earth. CHAPTER XVIII. "HAWORTH & CO." The next day, when he descended from his gig at the gates, instead of going to his office, Haworth went to the engine-room. "Leave your work a bit and come into my place," he said to Murdoch. "I want you." His tone was off-hand but not ill-humored. There was a hint of embarrassment in it. Murdoch followed him without any words. Having led the way into his office, Haworth shut the door and faced him. "Can tha guess what I want?" he demanded. "No," Murdoch answered. "Well, it's easy told. You said I'd be cooler to-day, and I am. A night gives a man time to face a thing straight. I'd been making a fool of myself before you came up, but I made a bigger fool of myself afterward. There's the end on it." "I suppose," said Murdoch, "that it was natural enough you should look at the thing differently just then. Perhaps I made a fool of myself too." "You!" said Haworth, roughly. "You were cool enow." Later Ffrench came in, and spent an hour with him, and after his departure Haworth made the rounds of the place in one of the worst of his moods. "Aye," said Floxham to his companion, "that's allus th' road when he shows hissen."