The Delta independent., 1915-11-05
CHAPTER XII.
Quid pro Quo.

Gulo pro Suo.
1t was his blessing that had done
1t; up to then she had controlled her
feelings in a fashion worthy of the
title just bestowed upon her. II only
he had stopped at that, and kept his
blessing to himself! 1t sounded SO
very much more like a knell that
Blanche had begun first to laugh, and
then to make such a fool of herself
(as she herself reiterated) that she
was obliged to run away in the worst
possible order
But that was not the end of those
four superf1uous words of final bene-
diction; before the night was out they
had solved, to Blanche's satisfaction,
the hitherto impenetrable mystery of
Cazalet's conduct.
He had done something in Austria
fa. something that fixed a gulf be-
tween him and her. Blanche did not
mean something wrong, much less a
crime, least of all any sort Of COM
plicity in the great crime which had
been committed while he was on his
way home. But she believed the
worst he had done was to emulate
his friend, Mr.. Potts. and to get en-
gagged or perhaps actually married to
somebody in the BUSH
There was no reason why he should
not; there never had been any sort
or kind of understanding between her
self and him; it was only as lifelong
friends that they had written to each
other, and that only once a year. Life
long friendships are traditionally fatal
to romance. They had both been
free as air; and if he was free no
longer, she had absolutely no cause
for complaint, even if she was fool
enough to feel it
All this she saw quite clearly in her
very honest heart. And yet, he might
have told her; he need not have flown
TO see her, the instant he landed or
seemed SO cverjoyed, and such boy
again; or made SO much of her and
their common memories, He need not
have begun begging her, in a minute,
to go out to Australia, and then never
have mentioned it again; he might
Just as well have told her If he had or
hoped to have wife to welcome her!
OF course he saw it afterward. him
self; that was why the whole subject
OF Australia had been dropped so sud
denly and fer good. Most likely he
had married beneath him; if so, she
was very sorry, but he might have said
that he was married.
Curiously enough, it was over Mar
tha that she felt least able to forgive
him Martha would say nothing. but
her unspoken denunciations of GAIA
let would be only less intoleraSle than
her unspoken sympathy with Blanche.
Martha had been perfectly awful about
the whole thing. And Martha had COM
mitted the final outrage of being per-
fectly right, from her idiotic point of
view.
Now among all these meditations of
long night, and of a still longer day.
in which nobody even troubled to send
her word of the case at Kingston, it
would be too much to say that no
thought of Hilton Toye ever entered
the mind of Blanche. She could not
help liking him; he amused her i'm
mensely; and he had proposed to her
twice, and warned her he would again.
She felt the force of his warning, be-
cause she felt his force of character
and will. She literally felt these
forces. as actual emanations from the
strongest personality that had ever
tmpinged upon her own.
In the day of reaction. such consid-
erations were bound to steal in as
single spies, each with certain con-
ISOLATION, not altogether innocent of
comparisons. But the battalion of
Toye's virtues only marched on
Blanche when Martha came to her. on
the little green rug of lawn behind
fhe house. to say that Mr.. Toye him