. She loved him little enough
to find the prospect of an early marriage alarming. That she did not
understand herself was not remarkable. Twenty-one has not the experience
by which the complexities of twenty-one may be straightened out and made
visible.

She sat at breakfast, puzzling the matter out, and was a little
disturbed and even distressed to find, in contrasting the men, that of
the two she had a warmer and a deeper feeling for Jasper Cole. Her alarm
was due to the recollection of one of Frank's warnings, almost
prophetic, it seemed to her now:

"That man has a fascination which I would be the last to deny. I find
myself liking him, though my instinct tells me he is the worst enemy I
have in the world."

If her attitude toward Frank was difficult to define, more remarkable
was her attitude of mind toward Jasper Cole. There was something
sinister--no, that was not the word--something "frightening" about him.
He had a magnetism, an aura of personal power, which seemed to paralyze
the will of any who came into conflict with him.

She remembered how often she had gone to the big library at Weald Lodge
with the firm intention of "having it out with Jasper." Sometimes it was
a question of domestic economy into which he had obtruded his
views--when she was sixteen she was practically housekeeper to her
adopted uncle--perhaps it was a matter of carriage arrangement. Once it
had been much more serious, for after she had fixed up to go with a
merry picnic party to the downs, Jasper, in her uncle's absence and on
his authority, had firmly but gently forbidden her attendance. Was it an
accident that Frank Merrill was one of the party, and that he was coming
down from London for an afternoon's fun?

In this case, as in every other, Jasper had his way. He even convinced
her that his view was right and hers was wrong. He had pooh-poohed on
this occasion all suggestion that it was the presence of Frank Merrill
which had induced him to exercise the veto which his extraordinary
position gave to him. According to his version, it had been the
inclusion in the party of two ladies whose names were famous in the
theatrical world which had raised his delicate gorge.

May thought of this particular incident as she sat at breakfast, and
with a feeling of exasperation she realized that whenever Jasper had set
his foot down he had never been short of a plausible reason for opposing
her.

For one thing, however, she gave him credit