"Bournemouth! How like her! But you haven't been down there to see her?" "No." "Are you going?" "Don't think so." "Then it isn't your mother that brought you up to town, old chap?" "No." "Is anything wrong?" asked Harry, after a moment's pause. It struck him that Romer looked very odd, and as he noted a slightly greyish tinge in Romer's face, he turned pale himself under his becoming sunburn. "What is the matter?" repeated Harry, who could not be quiet. His weakness lay in the fact that he never, under any circumstances, could entirely "hold his tongue." Romer put down his stick and hat, which he had been holding, took a chair exactly opposite Harry, stared him in the face, and said in a dry, hard voice, much less slowly than usual-- "There's something I wish you to do." "You wish me to----" "Yes. Write to Miss Walmer definitely breaking off your engagement." "My--engagement?" "I heard what you said yesterday afternoon. I came back from my walk--there was a nail in my boot. I heard every word from the window in my room." "You listened?" "Yes, I listened." "Romer, my dear fellow, I swear to you that ..." "Don't swear anything to me," said Romer quietly. "And don't dare to defend Valentia to me.... I advise you not." Harry was silent, utterly bewildered. "I find that your----friendship, instead of being a pleasure to her, is making her miserable. For some reason she likes to have you about. She doesn't wish you to marry Miss Walmer. Well, you shan't! Do you hear that? You shan't! You're not going to marry that girl and then come dangling about again." He waited a minute and then said-- "Valentia's got to be happy. You're not going to have everything _you_ want. You can surely make a little sacrifice to be her friend!" Then for one moment only Romer nearly lost his control. He said-- "We've been married five years, and I've never said a word or done a thing that she didn't like. And _you_ made her cry. You! You made her cry!" "My dear Romer, I assure you it's all ..." Romer interrupted him in a low voice, impatiently. "Oh, shut up, will you? I want no talk or discussion. I want only one thing. You're to write immediately, definitely putting an end to this engagement. While you write the letter I'll wait, and then I'll post it myself. Will you do it?" "My dear fellow, of course I'll do anything. But how strange you are! I should have thought----" "I don't want to know what you would have thought, and I don't care a straw what you think of my attitude. On condition you do what I say, I shall never refer to the subject again, and everything shall be as it has been." Harry was obviously greatly relieved. "I will do whatever you wish," he said, looking and feeling ashamed of himself. Seeing that Romer was evidently in a hurry for the letter, he drew writing materials to him. Then Romer said--