"A charging bull," suggested Darby, "or a liner coming out of harbour." His eyes watched Gheena wistfully.
"If he is not careful," said Gheena, "I'll marry just to have the place. I'll marry----"
"Mr. Stafford, Miss," said old Naylour, opening the door.
Gheena's look of gloom deepened as she eyed the offender's grey tweed suit.
"I came to tell you news," Stafford said. "A submarine sighted off Cortra harbour last night, and again not far from here."
"Someone here is supplying them with petrol," said Gheena--"someone."
"There are tales of strange motor-cars seen about at night," said Darby thoughtfully.
Psyche's grey was a little lame; she remembered it now, jumping up to drag Darby out to know what was wrong. "Because there will be a meet to-morrow and I want to go," she whispered.
Gheena, left alone with Stafford, remarked intelligently that the evening was chilly.
"You are very down on me, Miss Freyne"--he looked down at her, his arm on the old marble mantelshelf--"because I don't join the army."
Gheena said "Then why don't you?" her cheeks fiery.
"Well, at present I can't. There are the drains, and other reasons."
"To prepare potato ground for Germans," said Gheena, "ought not to be one. As for other reasons----" Her eyes flashed.
"That's one way of referring to the drains," he said good-humouredly, his eyes twinkling. "And I run messages to the Wireless Station and up to the coastguards, and take out Mrs. Weston to drive. It's not all drains."
Gheena sat silent, pulling Crabbit's ears. Her suspicions were deepening; she grew suddenly white.
"You can't even forgive me for being a slacker, I suppose?" Basil Stafford's eyes lost their twinkle. "Perhaps I don't approve of fighting?"
Mr. Stafford feared that she would never be taken on as a diplomatist. He walked to the window and added that no lights were to be used now at night near the sea; the coastguards were on the alert for offenders.
"So if the pups stray you are not to look for them with the stable lantern," he advised.
"Or with an electric torch," said Gheena, her cheeks fiery again.
"Miss Freyne," he said gravely, rather angrily, "if a man can't help himself----" He stopped suddenly, came back from the window, and said irrelevantly that he was changing his car for a new one, or perhaps he would keep both.