ation, it was Rosy who
would be called upon to bear the consequences. He would go at once to
Rosy, and she herself would have done what she had said she would not
do--she would have brought trouble upon the poor girl before she was
strong enough to bear it. She suspected also that his intention was
to discover how much she had heard, and if she might be goaded into
betraying her attitude in the matter.

But she was not to be so goaded. He watched her closely and her very
colour itself seemed to be under her own control. He had expected--if
she had heard hysteric, garbled stories from his wife--to see a flame
of scarlet leap up on the cheek he was admiring. There was no such leap,
which was baffling in itself. Could it be that experience had taught
Rosalie the discretion of keeping her mouth shut?

"I am very fond of Ughtred," was the sole comment he was granted.
"We made friends from the first. As he grows older and stronger, his
misfortune may be less apparent. He will be a very clever man."

"He will be a very clever man if he is at all like----" He checked
himself with a slight movement of his shoulders. "I was going to say a
thing utterly banal. I beg your pardon. I forgot for the moment that I
was not talking to an English girl."

It was so stupid that she turned and looked at him, smiling faintly. But
her answer was quite mild and soft.

"Do not deprive me of compliments because I am a mere American," she
said. "I am very fond of them, and respond at once."

"You are very daring," he said, looking straight into her
eyes--"deliciously so. American women always are, I think."

"The young devil," he was saying internally. "The beautiful young devil!
She throws one off the track."

He found himself more and more attracted and exasperated as they made
their rounds. It was his sense of being attracted which was the cause
of his exasperation. A girl who could stir one like this would be a
dangerous enemy. Even as a friend she would not be safe, because one
faced the absurd peril of losing one's head a little and forgetting
the precautions one should never lose sight of where a woman was
concerned--the precautions which provided for one's holding a good taut
rein in one's own hands.

They went from gardens to greenhouses, from greenhouses to stables, and
he was on the watch for the moment when she would reveal some little
feminine pose or vanity, but, this morning, at least, she laid none
bare. She did not stri