them, and as she walked alone on the cliff path with the stars
coming out, she had the strangest feeling of loneliness--of lacking
something that had always been there since she grew up. It was rather
as if she had cast some article of clothing which she had been in the
habit of wearing.

On reaching the more crowded part of the cliff near the promenade her
first instinct was to keep out of sight; for she had no young man with
her, and vaguely felt that she would look odd without one at this time
of night. It seemed so "queer" to be walking by herself on the cliff
in such an evening hour--but a further strangeness came with the
thought that she actually did not possess a "boy" at all. Nobody to
wait for her at the gate when she went out in the evening. No one to
hang round the pay-box at the promenade entrance to take her home. The
sense of missing something was a great deal stronger now than the sense
of freedom; she almost wished she had kept in with Wilf, despite that
other feeling that made her desire to break with him.

It was a relief to mingle with the crowd coming out from the promenade,
because people might suppose she had just left her post at the gate;
but she still kept that odd sensation--lightened of a weight, and yet
comfortless--as if she had "cast" something which had been more
necessary to her than she ever realized.

_Chapter IX_

_Wedding Clothes_

Miss Ethel was walking up and down the garden with Laura Temple, both
talking.

"I heard Caroline practising on the typewriter as I came through the
hall. The kitchen door was open," said Laura.

"Yes. She goes out much less now than she used to do. I fancy she has
broken off her engagement with that young man."

"I'm glad Godfrey thought of lending her a machine, for it may make her
more satisfied to remain with you; but I daresay that was his idea,"
said Laura. "He is like that."

"Is he?" said Miss Ethel rather shortly, and added after a moment: "It
was very kind of him, of course." She paused again, then broke out
vehemently: "I hate and detest all this conciliating and kowtowing. If
only I could manage the work myself, I wouldn't do it."

"But you can't--at least, not in this house," said Laura. She also
paused, looking deprecatingly at Miss Ethel. "Now, in one of those
little new houses in Emerald Avenue, you might manage all right."

"Oh, well, there are none to let," said Miss Ethel, "so that is out of
the question.