f too old, too jaded with the ways
of the world, ever to feel again. But she did not want to yield to the
attraction. She wanted to hold aloof for a space. She had come to this
quiet corner of the world in search of peace. She wanted to avoid the
problems of life, to get back her poise, to become an onlooker and no
longer a competitor in the maddening race from which she had so lately
withdrawn herself. She was willing to be interested, she already was
deeply interested, but only as a spectator, so she told herself. She
would not be drawn in against her will. She would stand aside and watch.

It was in this mood that she drove off with the squire on the way to the
open-air concert on the High Shale bluff on that magic June evening. Mrs.
Fielding was too weary after the many emotions of the day to accompany
them, but they left her in a tranquil frame of mind, and the squire was
in an unusually good humour. Though he had small liking for the High
Shale village people, it pleased him that Juliet should take an interest
in Green's enterprises, eccentric though they might be. And he considered
that she deserved a treat after her diplomatic handling of a very
difficult situation that morning.

"Might as well call and see if Dick would like a lift," he said, as they
neared the gates. "We've got to pass his door. I'll send Jack in."

But when they stopped at the school-house gate, a humped, familiar figure
was leaning upon it, and Jack flung an imperious question without
descending.

The squire's face darkened at the sight. "Here's that unspeakable baboon
Robin!" he growled.

Robin paid about as much attention to his brother's curt query as he
might have bestowed upon the buzzing of a fly. His dark eyes below his
shaggy thatch of hair were fixed, deeply shining, upon Juliet.

Jack muttered an impatient ejaculation under his breath and flung himself
out of the car. Before Juliet could speak a word to intervene, he had
given the gate on which Robin leant a push that sent the boy backwards
with considerable force on the grass while he himself went up the path to
the house at a run.

"Oh, what a shame!" said Juliet, a quick vibration of anger in her
deep voice.

She leaned forward sharply to open the door and spring out, but in a
second Fielding's hand caught hers, holding her back.

"No, no! Leave the young beggar alone! He's none the worse. He can pick
himself up again. Ah, and here comes Dick! He'll manage him!"

Rob