Page:The Paradise Mystery - Fletcher (1920).djvu/38

without something in the nature of a farewell. As he walked out of the surgery by the side entrance, Mary Bewery, who had just parted from young Bonham in the garden and was about to visit her dogs in the stable yard, came along: she and Bryce met, face to face. The girl flushed, not so much from embarrassment as from vexation; Bryce, cool as ever, showed no sign of any embarrassment. Instead, he laughed, tapping the hand-bag which he carried under one arm.

"Summarily turned out—as if I had been stealing the spoons," he remarked. "I go—with my small belongings. This is my first reward—for devotion."

"I have nothing to say to you," answered Mary, sweeping by him with a highly displeased glance. "Except that you have brought it on yourself."

"A very feminine retort!" observed Bryce. "But—there is no malice in it? Your anger won't last more than—shall we say a day?"

"You may say what you like," she replied. "As I just said, I have nothing to say—now or at any time."

"That remains to be proved," remarked Bryce.

"The phrase is one of much elasticity. But for the present—I go!"

He walked out into the Close, and without as much as a backward look struck off across the sward in the direction in which, ten minutes before, he had sent the strange man. He had rooms in a quiet lane on the farther side of the Cathedral precinct, and his present intention was to go to them to leave his bag and make some further arrangements. He had no idea of leaving Wrychester-he knew of another doctor in the