you are coming to sing at one of my Saturday night concerts at
High Shale!"

"Oh, I don't know, Dick." She looked momentarily embarrassed. "You know
we are going away very soon, don't you?"

"Where to?" he said.

"I don't know. Either Wales or the North. Mrs. Fielding needs a change,
and I--"

"You're coming back?" he said.

"I suppose so--some time. Why?" She looked at him questioningly.

He leaned forward, his black eyes unswervingly upon her. "Because--if you
don't--I shall come after you," he said, with iron determination.

She laughed a little. "Pray don't look so grim! I probably shall come
back all in good time. I will let you know if I don't, anyway."

"You promise?" he said.

"Of course I promise." She flicked her cigarette-ash into the water. "I
won't disappear without letting you know first."

"Without letting me know where to find you," he said.

She glanced over his shoulder as if measuring the distance between the
skiff and the landing-stage. "No, I don't promise that. It wouldn't be
fair. But you will be able to trace me by Columbus. He will certainly
accompany the cat's-meat cart wherever it goes. Oh, Dick! There's someone
there--waiting for us!"

He also threw a look behind him. "Shall I put her about? I don't see
anyone, but if you wish it--"

"No, no, I don't! Row straight in! There is someone there, and you'll
have to apologize. I knew we were being watched."

Juliet sat upright with a flushed face.

Dick began to laugh. "Dear, dear! How tragic! Never mind, darling! I
daresay it's no one more important than a keeper, and we will see if we
can enlist his sympathy."

He pulled a few swift strokes and the skiff glided up to the little
landing-stage. He shipped the sculls, and held to the woodwork with
one hand.

"Will you get ashore, dear, and I'll tie up. There's no one here, you
see."

"No one that matters," said a laughing voice above him, and suddenly a
man in a white yachting-suit, slim, dark, with a monkey-like activity of
movement, stepped out from the spreading shadow of a beech.

"Hullo!" exclaimed Dick, startled.

"Hullo, sir! Delighted to meet you. Madam, will you take my hand?
Ah--_et tu, Juliette!_ Delighted to meet you also."

He was bowing with one hand extended, the other on his heart. Juliet,
still seated in the stern of the boat, had gone suddenly white to the
lips.

She gasped a little, and in a moment forced a laugh that somehow sounded
desperate. "Why,