Then he sighed and pulled himself together. “I say, let’s get back!” He did not loosen his hold of Maradick’s arm. “Thank God you were here; I couldn’t have faced that hill alone . . . that devil . . .” Then he said under his breath, “My God!” Maradick paid his bill and they left. They passed the crowd and the discordant band and began to climb the hill. Tony was more himself. “I say, you must think me a fool, but, my word, I’ve had a fright! I’ve never been so terrified in my life.” “Morelli!” said Maradick. “Yes; only the silly thing is, nothing happened. At least nothing exactly. You see, I’d been there a deuce of a time; I wanted to speak to him alone, without Janet, but he wouldn’t let her go. It was almost as if he’d meant it. He was most awfully decent all the afternoon. We fooled about like anything, he and all of us, and then I had to give up getting back to dinner and just risk the governor’s being sick about it. We had a most ripping supper. He was topping, and then at last Janet left us, and I began. But, you know, it was just as if he knew what I was going to say and was keeping me off it. He kept changing the subject—pleasant all the time—but I couldn’t get at it. And then at last my chance came and I asked him. He didn’t say anything. He was sitting on the other side of the table, smiling. And then suddenly, I don’t know what it was, I can’t describe it, but I began to be terrified, horribly frightened. I’ve never felt anything like it. His face changed. It was like a devil’s. You could only see his eyes and his white cheeks and the tips of his ears, pointed. He was still laughing. I couldn’t stir, I was shaking all over. And then he began to move, slowly, round the table, towards me. I pulled myself together; I was nearly fainting, but I rushed for the door. I got out just as he touched me, and then I ran for my life.” He was panting with terror at the recollection of it. They were on the top of the hill. He turned and caught Maradick’s hand. “I say,” he said, “what does it mean?” CHAPTER XV WHY IT IS TO BE THE TWENTY-SEVENTH, AND WHAT THE CONNEXION WAS BETWEEN JANET’S BEING FRIGHTENED AND TOBY’S JOINING THE GREAT MAJORITY They all met at tea on the next afternoon, and for the gods who were watching the whole affair from the sacred heights of Olympus, it must have been a highly amusing sight. Mrs. Lawrence was the only person who might really be said to be “right out of it,” and she had, beyond question, “her suspicions”; she had _seen_ things, she had noticed. She had always, from her childhood, been observant, and anyone could see, and so on, and so on; but nevertheless, she was really outside it all and was the only genuine spectator, as far as mere mortals went.