'It wasn't exactly what I should have called it!' Then, after looking keenly at his companion, he said: 'Are you quite awake and sober now?' 'Quite.' The answer came defiantly; there was something in his questioner's tone which was militant and aggressive. Before speaking further Harold pulled up the horse. They were now crossing bare moorland, where anything within a mile could have easily been seen. They were quite alone, and would be undisturbed. Then he turned to his companion. 'You talked a good deal in your drunken sleep--if sleep it was. You appeared to be awake!' Leonard answered: 'I don't remember anything of it. What did I say?' 'I am going to tell you. You said something so strange and so wrong that you must answer for it. But first I must know its truth.' 'Must! You are pretty dictatorial,' said Leonard angrily. 'Must answer for it! What do you mean?' 'Were you on Caester Hill to-day?' 'What's that to you?' There was no mistaking the defiant, quarrelsome intent. 'Answer me! were you?' Harold's voice was strong and calm. 'What if I was? It is none of your affair. Did I say anything in what you have politely called my drunken sleep?' 'You did.' 'What did I say?' 'I shall tell you in time. But I must know the truth as I proceed. There is some one else concerned in this, and I must know as I go on. You can easily judge by what I say if I am right.' 'Then ask away and be damned to you!' Harold's calm voice seemed to quell the other's turbulence as he went on: 'Were you on Caester Hill this morning?' 'I was.' 'Did you meet Miss --- a lady there?' 'What . . . I did!' 'Was it by appointment?' Some sort of idea or half-recollection seemed to come to Leonard; he fumbled half consciously in his breast-pocket. Then he broke out angrily: 'You have taken my letter!' 'I know the answer to that question,' said Harold slowly. 'You showed me the letter yourself, and insisted on my reading it.' Leonard's heart began to quail. He seemed to have an instinctive dread of what was coming. Harold went on calmly and remorselessly: 'Did a proposal of marriage pass between you?' 'Yes!' The answer was defiantly given; Leonard began to feel that his back was against the wall. 'Who made it?' The answer was a sudden attempt at a blow, but Harold struck down his hand in time and held it. Leonard, though a fairly strong man, was powerless in that iron grasp. 'You must answer! It is necessary that I know the truth.' 'Why must you? What have you to do with it? You are not my keeper! Nor Stephen's; though I dare say you would like to be!' The insult cooled Harold's rising passion, even whilst it wrung his heart.