"For your own sake, I think you had. Good-bye." Askew still kept his seat. "I only wish to say that I am very--very sorry for your terrible loss." "Lady Frith's terrible loss, you mean. Go and see her, if you want to play the hired mourner." "Ah, poor Lady Frith----" "Now don't begin about her," snapped Leah, viciously. "But you must be sorry----" "I am--for myself. I have been dosed with the post-mortem virtues of those three Kaimes men until I feel that only wicked people are truly agreeable. I regret the Duke, who was a nice old sinner turned saint, and I lament Lord Frith for his goodness and sweetness of disposition--there." "I never heard that Lord Frith had a sweet disposition." "He hadn't; but I'm only saying the kind of things you expect me to say." "Oh!" Askew looked shocked. "Have the--er--bodies been found?" "I don't think so; but you can ask the executors who look after these things. Any more questions?" "No; only I am sorry----" "You said that before. You are sorry, I am sorry, we are sorry. I think that conjugation exhausts the subject. Let us talk of your yacht, Mr. Askew." "She's all right," he murmured, confused. It was difficult to comprehend this woman, who so lightly dropped a family sorrow to take on a subject which he knew interested her but little. "And when do you sail?" "To-morrow or next day. I came to say good-bye." "Oh!" said Leah, carelessly. "I fancied you came to sympathise. Well"--she rose and extended her hand--"good-bye." Askew clasped her hand coldly, wondering how he ever came to love so heartless a woman. As Jim was returning in glory and had not seen Señorita Fajardo since his reported death, Leah felt that she could safely dismiss this boy, to go where he would. Besides, she was beginning to find him a bore. He took things much too seriously, and was by no means so good-looking as she had imagined. All the same, after the manner of woman, who wants to have her pie and eat it, she by no means approved of his readiness to depart. "You don't seem to care much," she said reproachfully, and felt quite ill-used. Askew coloured boyishly. "I am not broken-hearted, certainly." "I do not believe that you have a heart." "You are right--it is at Rosario." "Then I advise you to go after it, lest it should get mixed up with other men's hearts." "Lola is no flirt," cried Askew, loyally. "Then she must be altogether too good for this world. Good-bye! Bring Mrs. Askew to see me when you return." "I fear you would be bored with her," said he, sore and sarcastic. "Probably. Married women are not interesting, except to people like you and Jim, who persistently break the tenth commandment." "I know one married woman who----" "Who has just said good-bye to you, and repeats it," snapped Lady Jim, seeing he was about to be rude. "Oh, very well, then, good-bye," said Askew, going out in a rage with her and with himself. And so they parted.