"Thanks." Cheniston ignored the latter half of the sentence with a smile Anstice felt to be insolent. "So Miss Wayne told you? I had hoped to be the first to give you the information."
"Miss Wayne told me, yes," said Anstice, taking his hat and coat from the chair where he had thrown them on his late entrance, and turning towards the door. "And I don't know that there is anything more to be said between us. Oh, yes, there is, though. One word, Cheniston." The other man had followed him to the door and now stood on the steps looking out into the fragrant July night. "I think that in all fairness you will now agree that I have paid my debt to you; wiped it out to the uttermost farthing. In future"—turning on the lowest stop he faced the man who stood above him, and in his face was a look which no other human being had ever seen there—"in future we are quits, you and I. The debt is paid in full."
And before Bruce Cheniston could frame any reply to his words Anstice turned away and was lost in the soft summer darkness.
CHAPTER XI
On the day before that fixed for Iris Wayne's wedding a large garden party was held at Greengates; and fortunately the late September afternoon was all that could be desired in regard to sunshine and soft breezes.
The wedding itself was to be a comparatively quiet affair, only a score or two of intimate friends and relations being invited to the house after the ceremony; but Lady Laura had ordained that on the previous day half the countryside was to be entertained; and although there were some people who did not altogether approve of the match—for Bruce Cheniston was, after all, the brother of the notorious Mrs. Carstairs—the majority were only too ready to follow Sir Richard Wayne's lead and extend a hand of friendship to Miss Wayne's prospective bridegroom.
Anstice had received an invitation to both ceremonies, and had accepted, provisionally, for each; but in his heart he knew that no power on earth could induce him to see Iris Wayne married to another man; and although he duly appeared at Greengates while the garden party was in full swing he only remained there a brief half-hour.
As he was bidding Lady Laura good-bye, Iris, with whom he had as yet only exchanged a couple of words, came up to him with a friendly little smile on her lips.
"Are you leaving us already, Dr. Anstice? I don't believe you've even had a cup of tea—or what Daddy calls a peg. Have you?"