And perhaps on the whole it was safer to obey Monck's command and go.

An open scandal would really be a good deal worse for him than for Stella, who had little to lose, and there was no knowing what might happen if he took the risk and remained.

Emphatically he had no desire to face a personal reckoning at some future date with the she-devil who had been the bane of his existence.

It was an unlikely contingency but undoubtedly it existed, and he hated unpleasantness of all kinds.

So, philosophically, he resolved to adjust himself to this burden.