should I care for one poor bud?"

She stuck a red rose in his coat, and when she had made her flowers into
a nosegay, he lifted her down from the sun-dial. For a moment she clung
to him. Meade had gone to rescue the sunshade which was blowing down the
slope, and for the moment they were alone. "Dicky," she whispered, "I was
horrid, but you mustn't go."

"I told you I couldn't, Eve."

Then Pip came back, and the three of them made their way to the
fountain, picking up Winifred and Tony as they passed. Tea was served on
the terrace, and a lot of other people motored out. There was much
laughter and lightness--as if there were no trouble in the whole wide
world.

Richard felt separated from it all by his mood, and when he went to the
house to send a message for Austin to the hospital, he did not at once
return to the terrace. He sought the great library. It was dim and quiet
and he lay back in one of the big chairs and shut his eyes. The vision
was before him of Pip leaning on the sun-dial against a rose-splashed
background, with Eve smiling down at him. It had come to him then that
Pip should have married Eve. Pip would make her happy. The thing was all
wrong in some way, but he could not see clearly how to make it right.

There was a sound in the room and he opened his eyes to find Marie-Louise
on the ladder which gave access to the shelves of the great bookcases
which lined the walls. She had not seen him, and she was singing softly
to herself. In the dimness the color of her hair and gown gave a
stained-glass effect against a background of high square east window.

Richard sat up. What was she singing?

"_I think she was the most beautiful lady_
_That ever was in the West Country,_
_But beauty vanishes, beauty passes,_
_However rare, rare it be._
_And when I am gone, who shall remember_
_That lady of the West Country?_"

"Marie-Louise," he asked so suddenly that she nearly fell off of the
shelves, "where did you learn that song?"

"From Mistress Anne."

"When you sing it do you think of--her?"

"Yes. Do you?"

"Yes."

Marie-Louise sat down on the top step of the ladder. "Dr. Dicky, may I
ask a question?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you fall in love with Anne?"

"I did."

"Oh! Then why didn't you marry her?"

"She is going to marry Geoffrey Fox."

Dead silence. Then, "Did she tell you?"

"No. He told me. Last spring."

"Before you came here?"

"Yes. That was the rea