Sunday afternoon was about what he cared most for in
this world. But my Captain he used to like camellias, and gardenias of
course--oh, he had a very soft corner in his heart for a nice gardenia.
Ah dear, what a masher he was to be sure!"

Sylvia had evidently seen them walking up the garden path, for leaning
over the railings of the balcony she was waiting for them.

"Here's quite a stranger come to see you," said Mrs. Gainsborough, with
a propitiatory glance in Sylvia's direction.

"I rather want to have a talk with you," said Michael, and he, too,
found himself rather annoyingly adopting a deprecating manner.

Sylvia came slowly down the balcony steps.

"I suppose you want my help," she said, and her underlip had a warning
out-thrust.

"I'll get on with my fal-lals," Mrs. Gainsborough muttered, and she
bundled herself quickly indoors.

Sylvia and Michael sat down on the garden-seat under the mulberry tree
whose leaves were scarcely yet uncurling. Michael found a great charm in
sitting close to Sylvia like this: she and Stella both possessed a
capacity for bracing him that he did not find in anyone else. Sylvia was
really worth quarreling with; but it would be very delightful to be
friends with her. He had never liked a person so much whom he had so
little reason to like. He could not help thinking that in her heart
Sylvia must like him. It was a strangely provocative fancy.

"Lily and I have parted," he began at once.

"And why do you suppose that piece of information will interest me?"
Sylvia asked.

Michael was rather taken aback. When he came to consider it, there did
seem no good reason why Sylvia should any longer be interested after the
way in which Lily had been snatched away from her. He was silent for a
moment.

"But it would have interested you a short time ago," he said.

"No doubt," Sylvia agreed. "But luckily for me one of the benefits
conferred by my temperament is an ability to throw aside things that
have disappointed me, things that have ceased to be useful--and what
applies to things applies even more strongly to people."

"You mean to say you've put Lily right out of your life?" Michael
exclaimed.

He was shocked by the notion, for he did not realize until this moment
how much he had been depending upon Sylvia for peace of mind.

"Haven't you put her out of _your_ life?" she asked, looking round at
him sharply. Until this question she had been staring sullenly down at
the grass.