"Thirty," he said presently, "only thirty, and I'm ordering a hot bath at half-past nine in the morning. It's telling."
He wandered around the room aimlessly, but with a steady step.
"Yes," he said aloud presently, "I'll do it, if only to have the laugh out of those puppies. What's the odds? Blanche Bridgewater or Olive Castlemaine? Women are all alike—mean, selfish, faithless. Well, what then? I'm in the mood for it."
He threw himself in a chair beside the bed and began to think.
"Yes," he said presently, "that plan will work."
CHAPTER III
THE MAN AND THE WOMAN MEET
"Olive," said John Castlemaine, after reading the letters which had come to his house one morning, "I am expecting two men here to dinner to-night."
"All right, father," said the girl, who was intent on a letter of her own, "I'll tell Mrs. Bray."