"

Peggy looked up at him with puzzled eyes, but she did not ask him what
he meant.

* * * * *

It was on that same afternoon that Olga found herself wandering along
the tiny glen in the Redlands grounds that had been her favourite resort
in childhood. It was only two days since she had left town, urged
thereto by Dr. Jim who insisted that she had been there too long
already. Nick, moreover, who had patiently chaperoned her for the past
five weeks, was wanting to rejoin his wife who had returned to Redlands
soon after Noel's operation. And Noel himself, though still undergoing
treatment at his brother's hands, had so far recovered as to be able to
leave the home and take up his abode temporarily with Sir Kersley
Whitton and Max. He had cheerily promised to follow her in a day or two;
and Olga, persuaded on all sides, had yielded without much resistance
though not very willingly. She had a curious reluctance to return to her
home. Something--that hovering phantom that she had almost
forgotten--had arisen once more to menace her peace. And she was afraid;
she knew not wherefore.

She was happier in Noel's society than in any other. To see him daily
growing stronger was her one unalloyed pleasure, and, curiously, when
with him she was never so acutely conscious of that chill shadow. Of Max
she saw practically nothing. He was always busy, almost too busy to
notice her presence, it seemed--a fact that hurt her vaguely even while
it gave her relief.

There was another fact that imparted the same kind of miserable comfort,
and that was that Noel, though impetuous and loving as ever, never made
any but the most casual allusions to their marriage. She could only
conclude that he was waiting to make a complete recovery, and she would
not herself broach the subject a second time. She did not actually want
him to speak, but it grieved her a little that he did not do so. She did
not for a moment doubt his love, but she felt that she did not possess
the whole of his confidence, and the feeling made her vaguely uneasy.
She had been so ready to give all that he had desired. How was it he was
slow to take?

These thoughts were running persistently in her mind as she moved along
the edge of the stream. It was a day in the end of May, fragrant with
many perfumes, crystallized with spring sunshine--such a day as she
would have revelled in only last year. Only last year! How many things
had happened si