but I
obstinately refused to go, and stayed glued in the flat. Not for worlds
would I have acknowledged it to a living creature, but--I was afraid
that while I was out some one might call. Ralph Maplestone had said
that business would bring him to town. Now that the Merrivales were in
Switzerland, and that anxiety was off his hands, he could come when he
liked. If he did not come it must be because he did _not_ like!

The reflection did not help to raise my spirits, nor to pass the
long-houred days; but it did give me an insight into my own heart. For
the first time I was honest with myself, and acknowledged that I
_wanted_ him to come! I faced the possibility that I might wait in
vain, and felt suddenly faint and weak. It had come to this, that I
_needed_ his strength, that I felt it impossible to face life without
him by my side. I determined, if he _did_ come, to show signs of
weakness in my resolution; possibly to go so far as to arrange a meeting
with my niece.

He came one afternoon when I was darning stockings by the dining-room
table, and the disobedient orphan showed him straight in on the domestic
scene. I hurriedly hitched round my chair and drew the casement
curtains, making an excuse of "too much sun," then folded the shawl
round my shoulders, and sat at attention. He said he was pleased to see
me. Was I quite well? The weather was very bright. Good news from
Switzerland, wasn't it? General Underwood was suffering from gout.
What were Miss Wastneys' plans for the summer?

"She--she doesn't know herself!" I sighed vaguely. "Circumstances
have--er--altered. Her friend Mrs Fane"--(I realised that Escott would
have to hear some explanation of Charmion's departure, but was loth to
set tongues wagging)--"has decided to return to America. She has spent
most of her life there, and has many ties."

He looked supremely uninterested. Mrs Fane might go to Kamtschatka for
all he cared!

"And will Miss Wastneys keep on the house alone?"

"Nothing is yet decided; but I think--not!"

He looked unperturbed. Showed none of the agitation I had hoped to see.

"Does she intend to join Mrs Fane in America?"

Now I felt hurt! Obviously, oh, quite obviously, he did not like me so
much as he did! It was nothing to him where I lived--nothing to him
where I went! A terrible feeling of loneliness overwhelmed me. Nobody
cared! I pressed my lips together to prevent their trembling; behind my
spectacl