And they looked soberly at one another and very pitifully at the broken man before them. "Don't take it too hard, Pixley," said Graeme quietly, laying a friendly hand on the other's shoulder. "It may not be as bad as this puts it. Codes are brutally bald things, you know" The bowed head shook pitifully. He raised his white face and looked round at them with a shocked shrinking in his eyes. "God forgive him!" he jerked. "And God forgive me, for I have doubted him at times! He was so--so--so demned good"--and Graeme's lips twitched in spite of himself, so closely was the expression in accord with his own feelings. But Pixley did not see the twitch, for he was looking at Margaret and Hennie Penny, and he was saying with vehemence-- "Will you believe me that I knew absolutely nothing of this? He never discussed his affairs with me nor I mine with him, and we had no business together except on purely business lines. If he had to buy or sell he sent it my way, of course,--nothing more. You will believe me, Graeme--" "Every word, my boy--" "We all believe it, Mr. Pixley," said Hennie Penny warmly. "And I know it, Charles," said Margaret. "It is very good of you all," he groaned. "I must get back at once, Graeme. How soon is there a boat?" "Five o'clock. You'll have to stop a night in Guernsey, which is a nuisance." Charles Svendt shook his head in dumb misery. It was crushing to be so far away--thirty hours at least, and he gnashing within to be on the spot and at work, learning the worst, seeing what could be done. Then, with a preliminary knock on the door, Mrs. Carre came in with brilliant lobsters and crisp lettuces for lunch, and, hungry as they all were, their souls loathed the thought of eating. "They are just out of the pot," beamed she, "and the lettuces were growing not five min'ts ago. Ech!"--at sight of Pixley--"is he ill?" "Mr. Pixley has just had bad news from home, Mrs. Carre," said Graeme. "He will have to go by to-day's boat." "Ach, but I am sorry! And him so happy yesterday and dancing the best in the room," and her pleasant face clouded sympathetically. "Meg, I'll go up to your room for a minute and finish my hair," said Hennie Penny. "I ran out just as I was--" "It was very kind of you," said Charles Svendt, and the general sympathy seemed to comfort him somewhat. "No good feeling too bad about it, old man, till you know all the facts," said Graeme, when the girls had gone off upstairs. "It hits me, Graeme. Not financially, as I said. But in every other way it hits me hard.--Have you reached the point of seeing that it may hit her too?"--and he nodded towards upstairs. "I suppose there was a glimmering idea of the chance of that at the back of my head somewhere, but we won't trouble about it just now. How about your mother?"