The more Norm reflected on the interview, the more he was convinced that he had understood it all thoroughly. Which, as he was the expert on human behaviour, was perfectly normal.

Although nothing would have made him admit it, Norm’s visit had had some effect on the Professor; it made him yearn toward his daughter more painfully than at any time since that Wednesday night when he had wept alone in his study. But this also he could not admit. If only she would show signs of wishing forgiveness, how quickly, how magnanimously he would forgive her! But there she sat across the table from him, in clothes which he had not seen before, and which even his unpractised eye could recognize as better than her usual garb, and with her hair cut short and dressed in a strange new fashion. His spirit was nearly broken, and he decided to make the first move toward reconciliation.

“I received a visit from a friend of yours today,” he said to her, “a young man from the chaplain’s department, who called himself Yarrow.”

“He is not a particular friend of mine.”

“Indeed? He appeared to know a good deal about our family affairs.”

Pearl said nothing.

“Tell me, Pearl, is it your custom to discuss family matters with outsiders?”

“No, Father.”

“But you have discussed your home with this man Yarrow?”

Pearl’s first instinct was to lie. Before that dreadful, emancipating Wednesday night she would certainly have done so. But three days of bitterness had changed her.

“Yes, Father.”

“I see. And may I ask why you did so?”

“I must talk to someone occasionally.”

The Professor said no more, and his heart was very heavy. He did not suppose, of course, that Pearl had told Yarrow that he had beaten her with a stick, or that he had an incestuous passion for her. That was plainly the spiteful talk of the cabal which had so long been at work against him. But he knew that Pearl had shut him out of her life because of that night.

Sunday was a black, silent day in the Vambrace home.

Sunday was not much better for Solly than it was for Professor Vambrace. He was possessed by the seemingly contradictory convictions that Pearl was a wretched, inconsiderable, bungling creature who had introduced a last intolerable complication into his already complicated life, and by the feeling that he must talk to her as soon as possible. In his mind’s eye he could see her—dark, dowdy and withdrawn. Therefore it was with surprise that he encountered the reality in the music room in the Library on Monday morning; it was as though a picture, previously much out of focus, had been made clear to him.

“Ah—can I have a minute? I mean, I’ve simply got to talk to you. It’s desperately important.”

“I’m very busy.”

“I can’t help that. You must listen; it’s as much your business as mine.”

“Please go away.”

“I won’t go away. I’ve been chasing you for days. We’ve got to have a talk. How can we get out of this bloody mess if we don’t discuss it?”

“I don’t know. And I don’t think you are likely to find a way.”

“Oh, I know; you’re angry with me because I didn’t do anything the other night. Well, what could I do? How would it have been if I’d knocked your father down when he was cuffing you? Or called a policeman? Damn it, I’m sorry. I’d have done something if it could have made any difference or settled anything. But I couldn’t think of anything, so I got out of the way. Look: I’m terribly sorry. And don’t think I came here for fun. I’m not enjoying this a bit more than you.”

“That’s a very charming remark.”

“Well, how charming have you been, since I came? Can’t we behave like sensible creatures and talk this thing out? I hear your father is suing The Bellman.”

“Yes. What’s that to you? All you have to do is get up in the witness box and swear that you never had any intention of marrying me, and you will be as white as driven snow. The judge will probably offer you the pity of the court in your wronged condition.”

“Well if that isn’t the most nauseating feminine attitude I’ve ever heard! Do you suppose I want anything of the kind? I don’t want anything to do with a court action. Do you?”

“Oh don’t talk like a fool! Of course I don’t. How do you suppose it will make me look?”

“Well, then, why don’t you repudiate the action?”

“How?”

“Simple. You hire a lawyer. When the case comes up he gets on his feet and says, ‘Your Honour, my client, Miss Pearl Vambrace, wishes me to say that she does not consider herself libelled, and wants it understood that she has nothing to do with bringing this action, and that it’s all a pipedream of her father’s, who has got into a fantod about nothing very much.’ Or however lawyers phrase these things. It’d blow the case sky-high.”

Pearl gazed at Solly with reluctant admiration. She had been agonizing about her situation for several days, and had seen no ray of light. But here was a man who cut through the complications with easy brilliance.

“If it was known you were going to do that, I doubt if the case would ever come to court,” Solly went on. “It’d just be a waste of money. Do you know a lawyer?”

“My cousin Ronnie is a lawyer.”

“Fitzalan? No good. He’s old Snelgrove’s partner, and Snelgrove has been telling half the town, in strict confidence, that he is going to take the hide off The Bellman.”

“Well, and so he should. It’s libelled me. And you too.”

“Don’t be silly. If it’s libel to say I’m engaged to you, and if it’s libel to say you’re engaged to me, surely we are both such lepers that the two libels cancel out. It’s a mistake, a damn silly mistake, but still a mistake.”

Once again Pearl was dazzled by Solly’s grasp of the fundamentals of her problem. His law might be shaky, but his reasoning was sound.

“You mean you don’t care about that engagement notice appearing?”

“Of course I care. It can make a hell of a mess of things for me. But it isn’t the end of the world, you know.”

“You mean it would be awful for you if Griselda Webster came to hear of it?”

“Well, it certainly wouldn’t make things any simpler.”

“I’m sorry I was so nasty about Griselda and you the other night.”

“Forget about all that. You were upset, understandably. So was I. All that crawling about on the floor, and hitting me on the nose, and playing those blood-soaked games. Very unnerving.” Solly caught her eye, and Pearl smiled. And she was so surprised to find herself smiling after four bitter days that she laughed and he laughed with her. They were so delighted and relieved to be laughing that they did not notice that the door had opened, and that the Librarian, Dr Forgie, stood beside them. A chronic sufferer from asthma, he spoke bubblingly, like a man under water.

“Well,” said he, looking up at them from his five foot three of scholarly obesity, “I have surprised you, I see. Now I really must protest, Bridgetower, against these, ah—tender assignations during Library hours. Miss Vambrace has her work to do, and I must beg you to confine your meetings to leisure time, which is ample—ample. We shall not quarrel about this single transgression of rules. Cupid plays strange tricks upon us all. Permit me to congratulate you both!” And here Dr Forgie seized Solly’s hand and wrung it powerfully. He then reached up to Pearl’s shoulders and dragged her down to a level with his own face, and kissed her with a smack. “I must beg that there will be no repetition of this incident,” said he, and strutted out of the room.

“Unless you want to be kissed again by Dr Forgie, we’d better part,” said Solly.

“How do you suppose he knew we were here?”

“His daughter Tessie told me where to find you. With many tender and insinuating sighs and glances, I may say. Cupid has a firm friend in Tessie. Then I suppose she regretted her kind action, and blatted to Pa.”