ure to find you here."

Vanna murmured a conventional acknowledgment and felt mentally
antagonistic. To feel oneself _de trop_ is never an agreeable
experience, and unreasonable though it might be, she resented both Mr
Rendall's attitude and his courteous disguise of the same. During the
meal which followed she remained stiff and silent, while her three
companions chatted and laughed with the ease of old friendship. Jean
sparkled, her depression dispersed by the presence of a companion of the
opposite sex, Miggles beamed from behind the tea-tray, and indulged in
reminiscent anecdotes, to which the young man lent the most flattering
attention. His bright eyes softened in genuine kindliness as he looked
into her large, good-natured face, and he waited upon her with the
utmost solicitude. Evidently there was a real bond of affection between
the homely old woman and the handsome man. Towards Jean his attitude
was more complex. Vanna, watching with jealous, anxious eyes--jealous
on behalf of that other suitor whose claims she had denied--could not
decide how much or how little his feelings were involved. He admired
her, of course--what man would not admire Jean? They bandied words
together, joked, teased, protested, without a suspicion of
self-consciousness; at times they smiled at each other with undisguised
affection; at other times some light word uttered by the girl seemed to
strike a false note, and the irritable expression in the man's eyes
flamed into sudden anger.

"He has a passionate nature; he could feel very deeply. I think he is
not happy." Such was Vanna's diagnosis of Piers Rendall's character as
she drank her tea and ate her plum-cake in almost uninterrupted silence.
Her companions had endeavoured to draw her into the conversation. Jean
had grimaced eloquently across the table, but Vanna made only a feeble
response. It seemed as though Jean's depression had been suddenly
shifted on to her own shoulders; the peaceful content of the last few
days had disappeared; she felt solitary, wounded, jarred. When the meal
was over and the three young people started out on their walk, these
feelings deepened. Had she not already received her instructions--that
she was to feign an accident as an excuse for obliterating herself for
the others' benefit? Vanna set her lips with an obstinate little
resolve to do nothing of the kind. She would not obtrude her society
where it was not desired, but she would sto