anger.

"Because I can't get to my clothes until you do."

Mavis got up, called to Jill, and turned her back on the nook,
wondering how on earth the man could have known her name; also, why he
had the impertinence to address her so familiarly.

She did not get very far, because, call as she might to Jill, the
spoiled dog took no notice of her summons, but remained about the place
that her mistress had left.

Mavis called vainly for some minutes, till, at last, Jill appeared,
carrying the man's collar in her mouth. Mavis tried to induce the dog
to come to her, but, instead, Jill raced madly round and round,
delighted with her find.

Very soon the man appeared, now dressed in a flannel suit, but
collarless; a bath towel was thrown over his shoulder. He advanced to
Mavis in leisurely fashion.

"Bother the man!" she thought.

"May I introduce myself?" he asked, as he lifted his hat.

"No, thank you," she replied coldly.

"There's no occasion. We've already met," he continued.

"I'm sure we haven't, and I haven't the least wish to know you."

"Rot! I'm Charlie Perigal."

"Charlie Perigal!"

"Yes. And how is little Mavis after all these years? But there's little
need to ask."

Here he stared at her with an immense admiration in his eyes.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHARLIE PERIGAL

Mavis looked at the friend of her youth. As she saw him now, he was, in
appearance, but a grown-up replica of the boy she remembered. There
were the same steely blue eyes, curly hair, and thin, almost bloodless
lips. With years and inches, the man had acquired a certain defiant
self-possession which was not without a touch of recklessness; this
last rather appealed to Mavis; she soon forgot the resentment which his
earlier familiarity had excited.

"You haven't altered a bit!" she declared.

"But you have."

"I know. I'm quite an old woman."

"That's what I was going to say."

"Thanks."

"I knew you'd be pleased. May I have my collar?"

"It's that naughty Jill. I am so sorry."

Mavis rescued the collar from the dog's unwilling mouth.

"How did you know it was me?"

"I guessed."

"Nonsense!"

"Why nonsense?"

"You aren't clever enough."

"Quite right. The pater told me you were to be found in Melkbridge."

"Your father! How did he know?"

"He knows everything that goes on here, although he never goes
anywhere. And then, when I asked one or two people about you, they said
you were always about with a blac