I uttered no word of reproach. It was unnecessary. At first he behaved as if the light had gone out of his life--which was pleasant for me; then he seemed to realize that perhaps some amends were owing to me... Assented immediately to my proposal that we should go right away... I chose Menton because Sir Appleton Deepe was there. He, I fancy, would be the first to tell you that I really _made_ him. Unheard-of before the war, except in business... I wanted his advice about Will: where he could lay out his talents to greatest advantage, as it were; and, though nothing has been decided definitely, I _have_ a promise, and he is most anxious to meet Will... So one's time was not _wasted_... And there, in the peace and wonderful sunshine, one had an opportunity of recovering one's perspective. I had tided Arthur through his great crisis; and there was nothing, I felt, to fear in the future. But we could not let it rest at that. There had been an intolerable amount of malicious gossip--how wide-spread I could not believe until the proof was thrust before me--; men jesting in their clubs, women gloating... And you may be sure that the Brackenbury and Spenworth broods were only too delighted to think that yet another had been dragged down to their level; if one was not to be a by-word and an object of scorn... Goodness me, I wasn't thinking of my own poor dignity, but these stories had to be stopped somehow. In the school in which I was brought up one was supposed to set something of an example; for what it may be worth, one _does_ occupy a certain _niche_; it was more than time for us to shew that there had _been_ no catastrophe, as our kind friends would have liked to think. "Arthur," I said, "you will never hear me allude to this again. We have passed through a time of trouble, but God has mercifully brought us into safety. For some months we have been spied on and whispered about; it is our duty to shew a happy and united front!" Arthur said at once that he would do whatever I wanted... You do not often hear me talking of "position" or "dignity" or "rights", but I did indeed feel that any poor little _niche_ we might occupy was threatened. Spenworth's own record is so infamous that people would feel it was only natural for his brother to tread the same path. I am not ashamed to confess that I _do_ feel what people say about me. _Some_ people... And it was these people, the people who _mattered_, that I wanted to convince; if there was indeed no rift between Arthur and me, why should we allow the gossips to pretend there was? ...