the deception she had practised upon
her people, and he turned his head that he might not see her tears. She
told him of the "Three Graces," and of the stage manager--she called him
the "stage damager"--and then _she_ turned her head that she might hide
her shame. She told him of Josephs, the bogus agent, and his face grew
hard and his brown eyes looked black.

"And where did you say his place was?" he asked in a voice that vibrated
and broke.

"I didn't say," she answered with a laugh and a tear.

She told him of Aggie, and of the foreign clubs, and of Koenig, and of
the dinner party at the Home Secretary's, and then she skipped a step and
cried:

"Ding, dong, dended,
My tale's ended."

"And was it there you met Mr. Drake again?"

She replied with a nod.

"Never having seen him in the meantime?"

She pursed her lips and shook her head. "That's all over now, and what
matter? I likes to be jolly and I allwis is!"

"But is it all over?" he said, and he looked at her again with the deep
look that had cut into her heart.

"He's going to say something," she thought, and she began to laugh, but
with a faint tremor, and giving the dog her parasol to carry in his
mouth, she took off her hat, swung it in her hand by the brim, and set
off to run.

There was the light shimmer of a pool at a level below, where the water
had drained to a bottom and was inclosed by beeches. The trees seemed to
hang over it with outstretched wings, like birds about to alight, and
round its banks there were plots of violets which filled the air with
their fragrance. It was a God-blest bit of ground, and when he came up
with her she was standing at the edge of the marshy mere panting and on
the point of tears, and saying, in a whisper, "Oh, how beautiful!"

"But however am I to get across?" she cried, looking with mock terror on
the two inches of water that barely covered the grass, and at the pretty
red shoes that peeped from under her dress.

Then something extraordinary occurred. She hardly knew what was happening
until it was over. Without a word, without a smile, he lifted her up in
his arms and carried her to the other side. She felt helpless like a
child, as if suddenly she belonged to herself no longer. Her head had
fallen on his shoulder and her heart was beating against his breast. Or
was it _his_ heart that was beating? When he put her down she was afraid
she was going to cry, so she began to laugh and to say they mustn't