“No,” said Kent again.
“But how, then—tell me what you intend—”
“No,” said Kent, and with such absolute flat finality that the others looked at him in blank silence.
The silence was broken by a tremendous sigh. All eyes turned to Preston Jax, who had risen and was leaning against the wall, his chin jerking galvanically.
“Well?” said Kent.
“What about me?” asked the Star-master miserably.
Kent’s fingers twitched at his ear lobe. “Well, what about you?” he repeated.
“What are you going to do with me?”
“You? Oh! You go back to Irene,” said Kent, with his half smile. “That’s your sentence, if Mrs. Blair approves.”
The astrologer drew a quick breath. The light of a great relief softened his hard little eyes. A startled look widened them as Marjorie Blair, her own trouble forgotten for the moment, rose and went over to him, the reflection of another’s happiness shining in her face and making it doubly lovely. A ring glinted in her outstretched hand.