Micky had risen to his feet. June glanced up at him.
"Go and find the taxi and leave her to me," she said sharply. The look of suffering in his face hurt her. Micky went out into the cold night bareheaded. He hardly knew what he was doing. He stood for some minutes on the path forgetting why he had come out at all, before some one, jostling against him, brought him back to a sense of time and place.
He went down the road to look for a taxi. When he came back Esther was sitting up, wrapped in her cloak. She was not crying now, but she looked like a child who wants to cry but is determined not to.
"We're quite ready," she said. She kept an arm about Esther, and Micky followed them silently.
He saw them into the cab, but did not follow. June asked a sharp question: "Aren't you coming?"
"No--at least, not if you can manage without me." His voice sounded unnerved; he looked away from June to where Esther was huddled into a corner beside her, and suddenly, as if urged by an impulse he could not control, he leaned forward, groped for her hand in the darkness, and, bending, kissed it passionately.
A moment later he had stepped back and shut the door.
He stood looking after the cab till it vanished round a corner, then he went back to the theatre for his hat and coat, and set off again down the road.
He was not conscious of any real emotion; but he walked swiftly as a man does who has a set purpose, and he did not stop till he found himself outside the Ashtons' house.
It was not far off midnight, but lights burned in many of the windows, and after a swift glance at the face of the house he went up the steps and rang the bell.
It was some moments before the door was opened by a mildly amazed-looking servant; Micky asked for Mr. Ashton.
"My name is Mellowes," he said, as she obviously hesitated. "If you tell him my name he will see me. I know he is in, I saw him at the Comedy Theatre to-night."
He stepped past the girl into the hall, and after a slightly scared glance at him she shut the door and departed upstairs.
A moment later Micky heard Ashton's voice.
"You old night-bird! What an ungodly hour to call on any one! I was just going to bed; come in."
He spoke easily, but there was a slightly anxious look in his eyes; he led the way into the library.