"Oh, I've thought of that. In that case I shall run Vanity Girl in the Thousand Guineas, declare to win with either in the Derby, and Houston is to have his pick after the race for ten thousand pounds." "And you've thought out all this wonderful and complicated plan of campaign?" "Not entirely," Tony admitted. "Not at all," said Dorothy, sharply. "You know perfectly well that Houston thought out every detail of it." She wondered if a man who could juggle like this with the future of horses might not be equally expert with women. But no, he wanted the woman; he did not want the horses. She sent a note round to Albany saying that a bad headache kept her at home that afternoon, but that she fully appreciated the good will he had just shown and that she hoped to see him at dinner to-morrow. She knew that she could not keep Houston at arm's-length indefinitely, but if she could keep him there until, at any rate, Clare was temporarily safe she should have a breathing-space until June. Then if Tony lost the Derby, she should have to offer herself to preserve Clare; but if he won, she and Clare would both be saved. "God!" she cried to her soul, "with me it always seems that June is to decide everything." When the following night Houston reproached her for breaking the appointment of yesterday she reminded him that he, too, had only made promises so far; but when Houston kept his word and freed Clare until the settling day after Epsom, she still held back. "You'll appreciate me all the more for being kept waiting." "I've waited years," he said. "I'll go for a drive with you to-morrow." So it went on until the week before the Guineas. "You're trying to fool me. You think you can get something for nothing as easily now as you could when you were at the Vanity." "Be reasonable, my dear man," she begged. "Your money is perfectly safe. What are you risking? If Tony loses the Derby you win me the moment you put in my hands the title-deeds of Clare. If Tony wins the Derby...." She let her deep-brown eyes gaze into his. "Kiss me," said Houston. "Kiss me once and I'll believe you." A good lady's maid is bound to enjoy a considerable amount of intimacy in her relationship with her mistress; no lover is allowed as much. Dorothy from youth had trained her kisses to be her servants; they had always served her well, and if a degree of intimacy was unavoidable it was always the intimacy of a servant, which does not count. One of these kisses she summoned to her aid now. Tony proposed that Lonsdale should drive them down to Newmarket for the Guineas, but Lonsdale said he was booked to fly on that day. "You never come near us now," said Dorothy, reproachfully. "I can't stand that fellow Houston. I can't think how you can bear him around all the time." "He's very amusing," said Dorothy. "So's a bishop in a bathing-dress. If you want amusement you can get plenty of it," Lonsdale growled, "without having to depend on a fellow like that."