d. He
considered the attitude of the Marchioness unjustifiably frivolous. He
had an uneasy conviction that she was not in the least inclined to take
him seriously.

"I don't think," he said, glancing at the clock, "that I need detain you
any longer."

"You are really going away, then?" she asked him softly.

"Yes."

"To call on Lady Ruth, perhaps?"

"As it happens, no," he answered.

Suddenly her face changed--she had remembered something.

"It was Lady Ruth!" she exclaimed.

"Exactly!" he interrupted.

"What a triumph of inconsistency!" she declared scornfully. "You are
lending them money!"

"I am lending money to Lady Ruth," he answered slowly.

Their eyes met. She understood, at any rate, what he intended to convey.
Certainly his expression was hard and merciless enough now!

"Poor Ruth," she murmured.

"Some day," he answered, "you will probably say that in earnest."

JULIET GAINS EXPERIENCE

"Of course," Juliet said, "after Tredowen it seems very small, almost
poky, but it isn't, really, and Tredowen was not for me all my days. It
was quite time I got used to something else."

Wingrave looked around him with expressionless face. It was a tiny
room, high up on the fifth floor of a block of flats, prettily but
inexpensively furnished. Juliet herself, tall and slim, with all the
fire of youth and perfect health on her young face, was obviously
contented.

"And your work?" he asked.

She made a little grimace.

"I have a good deal to unlearn," she said, "but Mr. Pleydell is very
kind and encouraging."

"You will go down to Cornwall for the hot weather, I hope?" he said.
"London is unbearable in August."

"The class are going for a sketching tour to Normandy," she said,
"and Mr. Pleydell thought that I might like to join them. It is very
inexpensive, and I should be able to go on with my work all the time."

He nodded thoughtfully.

"I hear," he said, "that you have met Mr. Aynesworth again."

"Wasn't it delightful?" she exclaimed. "He is quite an old friend of Mr.
Pleydell. I was so glad to see him."

"I suppose," he remarked, "you are a little lonely sometimes?"

"Sometimes," she admitted. "But I sha'n't be when I get to know the
girls in the class a little better."

"I have some friends," he said thoughtfully, "women, of course, who
would come and see you with pleasure. And yet," he added, "I am not sure
that you would not be better off without knowing them."

"They are fa