red fierily. "I was taking it away with me to burn on the
garden bonfire," she said.

"Give it to me!" he said.

"No, don't, Allegro! It isn't yours to give. You may give it to Dr.
Wyndham if you like, but not to Bruce."

"I am not going to give it to anyone," Olga said rather shortly.

"Pardon!" said Max, holding out his hand. "I should like to sample Miss
Campion's taste in literature."

She drew back, but his hand remained outstretched. After a moment,
reluctantly, she surrendered the book. He took it, and began to turn the
pages.

"Nothing ever shocks a medical man," observed Violet. "He is inured to
the worst. Come along, dear! This place is like a vault. Let us get into
the sunshine and leave him to wallow till tea appears."

They went out together to Olga's immense relief, and spent the next ten
minutes in playing with the motor, in the driving of which Violet had
lately developed a keen interest.

When they returned, the book had disappeared and the incident was
apparently forgotten. They had tea to the accompaniment of much
light-hearted chatter on the parts of Violet and Max Wyndham. Colonel
Campion sat in heavy silence, and Olga instinctively held aloof. There
was something in Max's attitude that puzzled her, but it was something
so intangible that she could not even vaguely define it to herself. All
his careless banter notwithstanding, she was fully convinced in her own
mind that he was not in the smallest degree dazzled or so much as
attracted by the brilliant beauty that so dominated her own imagination.
Though he laughed and joked in his customary cynical strain, she had a
feeling that his mental energies were actually employed elsewhere. He
was like a man watching behind a mask. Watching--for what?

Suddenly she remembered again the tragedy she had witnessed in the glen
that afternoon, and her heart recoiled.

Was it the atmosphere of the place that made her morbid? Or was there
indeed some evil influence at work in her friend's life which she by her
headlong action had somehow rendered active?

Before they left the Priory, she had begun to repent almost passionately
the impulse that had taken her thither. But wherefore she thus repented
she could not have explained.

CHAPTER V

THE CHAPERON

"It's very kind of Olga to provide us with distractions," said Nick, as
he dropped into an arm-chair, with a cigar, "but I almost think we are
better off without them. If I see much of that