he and her home would be bereft----

At the sound of his step she looked up.

"Wicked one! What came to you?"

Impossible to hide from her the disarray of his emotions. So he spoke
the simple truth.

"Tara came to me----! I'd been prowling on the moor, and forgetting the
time. I met her on the lawn----"

"Yes--where is she?--And you----?"

He caught the note of apprehension. Next moment he was kneeling by her
chair, confessing all.

"Mummy, I've just asked her--to marry me. And she simply ... won't hear
of it. I thought it would be so lovely, going out together--that it
would please you so----"

The smile in her eyes recalled Tara's own. "Did you say it that way--to
her, my darling?"

"No--not exactly. Naturally I did mention you--and India. She admits
she's fond of me. Yet she got quite angry. I can't make her out."

A faintly aggrieved note in his voice, implied expectation of sympathy.
To his inexpressible surprise she said pensively, as if to herself:
"Such a wise Tara!"

"Well, _I_ don't see where the wisdom comes in," he muttered a trifle
disconcerted.

"Not yet, son of my heart. Some day perhaps when your eyes are not too
dazzled from the many-coloured sparkle of youth--of yourself--you will
see--many surprises. You are not yet ready for a wife, Roy. Your heart
is reaching out to far-away things. That--_she_ has been woman enough to
guess."

"Perhaps, I'm not so sure. She seemed--not a bit like herself, part of
the time." He looked pensively at a slim vase overflowing with sprays of
blush rambler, that, for some reason, evoked a tantalising vision of the
girl who had so suddenly blossomed into a woman; and his shy, lurking
thought found utterance: "I've been wondering, Mummy, is it ... can she
be--in love with somebody else? Do you think she is?"

Lilamani shook her head at him. "That is a man's question! Hard to tell.
At this kind of age, when girls have so much character--like my
Tara--they have a natural instinct for hiding the thoughts of their
hearts." She dropped her needlework now and lightly took his head
between her hands, looking deep into his eyes. "Do you think _you_ are
yet--in love with her, Roy? Honest answer."

The touch of her hands stirred him all through. The question in her eyes
probed deep.

"Honest answer, Mummy--I'm blest if I know," he said slowly. "I don't
think I've ever been so near it before; beyond thrills at dances ... and
all that. She somehow churned me up jus