ld, I should not have had to hasten back in the heat."

"But I wasn't invited," said Chris, "and I know every inch of those
gardens. I knew them long ago, before the Pounceforts came."

"The invitation," said Aunt Philippa, not to be diverted from her
purpose, "was quite casual. You could quite well have accompanied me. In
fact, I think Mrs. Pouncefort was surprised not to see you. However, we
need not discuss that further. Doubtless you had your own reasons for
desiring to remain at home, and I shall not ask you what those reasons
were. What I do ask, and what I think I have a right to know, is whether
you have had the proper feeling to tell your husband that the Captain
Rodolphe you met at Pouncefort Court a little while ago is the man with
whom you were so deplorably intimate at Valpre in your girlhood, or
whether you have had the audacity to pretend that he was a total stranger
to you."

Chris almost gasped at this unexpected attack, but its directness
compelled an instant reply without pausing to consider the position.

"I was never intimate with Captain Rodolphe," she said quickly. "I never
spoke to him before the other day."

And there she stopped suddenly short, arrested by the look of open
incredulity with which her aunt received her hasty statement.

There was a moment's silence. Then, "Really!" said Aunt Philippa. "He
gave Mrs. Pouncefort to understand otherwise."

Chris felt the blood rush to her face. This was intolerable. "What did he
give Mrs. Pouncefort to understand?" she demanded.

"Merely that you were old friends," said Aunt Philippa, with the calm
superiority of one not to be shaken in her belief.

"Then he lied!" said Chris fiercely.

Aunt Philippa said "Indeed!" with raised eyebrows.

Chris's hands clenched unconsciously. "He lied!" she repeated. "We are
not friends! We never could be! I--I hate the man!"

"Then you know him well enough for that?" said Aunt Philippa.

Chris sprang to her feet with hot cheeks and blazing eyes. "Aunt
Philippa, you have no right--you and Mrs. Pouncefort--to--to talk me over
and discuss my acquaintances!"

"My dear child," said Aunt Philippa, "all that passed between us was a
remark made by Mrs. Pouncefort to the effect that one of her guests,
Captain Rodolphe--an old friend of yours whom she believed you had
originally met at Valpre--had just returned to Paris. What led to the
remark I do not remember. But naturally the name recalled certain
regrettab