“I expect that’s what he tells himself—­that’s the handle, so to speak.  But it’s chiefly a sort of obstinacy.  He said he would go on the roads, and so he’s gone.”

“I rather like that, you know,” said Dick.

Jack snorted a little.

“Oh, it’s better than saying a thing and not doing it.  But why say it?”

“Oh! one must do something,” said Dick.  “At least, some people seem to think so.  And I rather envy them, you know.  I’m afraid I don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t do anything.  Unless you can call this sort of thing doing something.”  He waved his hand vaguely round his perfectly arranged room.

Jack said nothing.  He was inclined to be a little strenuous himself in some ways, and he had always been conscious of a faint annoyance with Dick’s extreme leisureliness.

“I see you agree,” went on Dick.  “Well, we must see what can be done.”

He stood up smiling and began to expand and contract his fingers luxuriously before the fire behind his back.

“If we can only get Frank away,” murmured Jack.  “That’s enough for the present.”

“And what do you propose to do with him then?”

“Oh, Lord!  Anything.  Go round the world if he likes.  Come and stay at my place.”

“And suppose he thinks that’s a bit too near to ... to Lady Talgarth.”.

This switched Jack back again to a line he had already run on for an hour this evening.

“Yes, that’s the ghastly part of it all.  He’s sure not to have heard.  And who the devil’s to tell him?  And how will he take it?”

“Do you know,” said Dick, “I’m really not frightened about that?  All you’ve told me about him makes me think he’ll behave very well.  Funny thing, isn’t it, that you know him so much better than I do?  I never dreamed there was so much in him, somehow.”

“Oh, there’s a lot in Frank.  But one doesn’t always know what it is.”

“Do you think his religion’s made much difference?”

“I think it’s done this for him,” said Jack slowly. “(I’ve been thinking a lot about that).  I think it’s fixed things, so to speak ....”  He hesitated.  He was not an expert in psychological analysis.  Dick took him up quickly.  He nodded three or four times.

“Exactly,” he said.  “That’s it, no doubt.  It’s given him a center—­a hub for the wheel.”

“Eh?”

“It’s ... it’s joined everything on to one point in him.  He’ll be more obstinate and mad than ever before.  He’s got a center now....  I suppose that’s what religion’s for,” he added meditatively.

This was Greek to Jack.  He looked at Dick uncomprehendingly.

Dick turned round and began to stare into the fire, still contracting and expanding his fingers.

“It’s a funny thing—­this religion,” he said at last.  “I never could understand it.”

“And what about Archie?” asked Jack with sudden abruptness. (He had no continuity of mind.)