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on leave and had known only by sight. But the moment she spoke I remembered at once. I remembered the dry twinkle in her eyes and the crisp sound of her voice. There was something in her voice that seemed to mean: You’re a bit of a damned fool, my lad, but you’re not a bad sort and upon my soul I rather like you.”
    “That’s a good deal to read into the sound of a voice,” I smiled.
    “She came up to me in the club and shook hands with me. ‘How do you do, Major Gaze? Do you remember me?’ she said.
    “‘Of course I do.’
    “‘A lot of water has passed under the bridge since we met last. We’re none of us as young as we were. Have you seen Theo?’
    “For a moment I couldn’t think whom she meant. I suppose I looked rather stupid, because she gave a little smile, that chaffing smile that I knew so well, and explained.
    “‘I married Theo, you know. It seemed the best thing to do. I was lonely and he wanted it.’
    “‘I heard you married him,’ I said. ‘I hope you’ve been very happy.’
    “‘Oh, very. Theo’s a perfect duck. He’ll be here in a minute. He’ll be so glad to see you.’
    “I wondered. I should have thought I was the last man Theo would wish to see. I shouldn’t have thought she would wish it very much either. But women are funny.”
    “Why shouldn’t she wish to see you?” I asked.
    “I’m coming to that later,” said Gaze. “Then Theo turned up. I don’t know why I call him Theo; I never called him anything but Cartwright, I never thought of him as anything but Cartwright. Theo was a shock. You know what he looks like now; I remembered him as a curly-headed youngster, very fresh and clean-looking. He was always neat and dapper, he had a good figure, and he held himself well, like a man who’s used to taking a lot of exercise. Now I come to think of it he wasn’t bad-looking, not in a big, massive way, but graceful, you know, and lithe. When I saw this bowed, cadaverous, bald-headed old buffer with spectacles I could hardly believe my eyes. I shouldn’t have known him from Adam. He seemed pleased to see me, at least, interested; he wasn’t effusive, but he’d always been on the quiet side and I didn’t expect him to be.
    “‘Are you surprised to find us here?’ he asked me.
    “‘Well, I hadn’t the faintest notion where you were.’
    “‘We’ve kept track of your movements more or less. We’ve seen your name in the paper every now and then. You must come out one day and have a look at our place. We’ve been settled there a good many years, and I suppose we shall stay there till we go home for good. Have you ever been back to Alor Lipis?’
    “‘No, I haven’t,’ I said.
    “‘It was a nice little place. I’m told it’s grown. I’ve never been back.’
    “‘It hasn’t got the pleasantest recollections for us,’ said Mrs Cartwright.
    “I asked them if they’d have a drink and we called the boy. I dare say you noticed that Mrs Cartwright likes her liquor; I don’t mean that she gets tight or anything like that, but she drinks her stengah like a man. I couldn’t help looking at them with a certain amount of curiosity. They seemed perfectly happy; I gathered that they hadn’t done at all badly, and I found out later that they were quite well off. They had a very nice car, and when they went on leave they denied themselves nothing. They were on the best of terms with one another. You know how jolly it is to see two people who’ve been married a great many years obviously better pleased with their own company than anyone else’s. Their marriage had evidently been a great success. And they were both of them devoted to Olive and very proud of her. Theo especially.”
    “Although she was only his step-daughter?” I said.
    “Although she was only his step-daughter,” answered Gaze. “You’d think that she would have taken his name. But she hadn’t. She called him Daddy, of course, he was the only father she’d ever known, but she signed