re to affront the crowd she had a saving idea. She pointed to
Flank Hall and its sloping garden, and to the sea-wall against which the
high spring tide was already washing, and she suggested that they should be
rowed thither in the dinghy instead of walking around by the sea-wall or
through' the village.

"But we cannot climb over that dyke," Madame Piriac protested.

"Oh, yes, we can," said Audrey. "I can see steps in it from here, and I can
see a gate at the bottom of the garden."

"What a vision you have, darling!" murmured Madame Piriac. "As you wish,
provided we get there."

The dinghy, at Audrey's request, was brought round to the side of the yacht
opposite from the Hard, and, screening her face as well as she could with
an open parasol, she tripped down by the steps into it. If only Aguilar was
away from the premises she might be saved, for the place would be shut up,
and there would be nothing to do but return. Should Madame Piriac suggest
going into the village to inquire--well, Audrey would positively refuse to
go into the village. Yes, she would refuse!

As the boat moved away from the yacht, Musa showed himself on deck. Madame
Piriac signalled to him a salutation of the finest good humour. She had
forgotten his pettishness. By absolutely ignoring it she had made it as
though it had never existed. This was her art. Audrey, observing the
gesture, and Musa's smiling reply to it, acquired wisdom. She saw that she
must treat Musa as Madame Piriac treated him. She had undertaken the
enterprise of launching him on a tremendous artistic career, and she must
carry it through. She wanted to make a neat, clean job of the launching,
and she would do it dispassionately, like a good workwoman. He had
admitted--nay, he had insisted--that she was necessary to him. Her pride in
that fact had a somewhat superior air. He might be the most marvellous of
violinists, but he was also a child, helpless without her moral support.
She would act accordingly. It was absurd to be angry with a child, no
matter what his vagaries.... At this juncture of her reflections she
noticed that Mr. Gilman and Miss Thompkins had quitted the yacht together
and were walking seawards. They seemed very intimate, impregnated with
mutual understanding. And Audrey was sorry that Mr. Gilman was quite so
simple, quite so straightforward and honest.

When the dinghy arrived at the sea-wall Audrey won the stalled admiration
of the sailor in charge of the