g lady
had been smartly punished. Serve her right--oh, serve her right a
thousand times for having dared to trifle! Desire wasted no pity on
her. But what of him? With merciless lucidity Desire's busy brain
created the missing acts which might have brought the professor's
tragedy of errors to a happy ending. It would have been so simple--if
Benis had only waited. Even pursuit would not have been required of
him. Mary, unpursued, would have come back; unasked, she might have
offered. But Benis had not waited.

Desire saw all this in the time that it took her to go down-stairs. At
the bottom of the stairs she faced its unescapable logic: if he were
free now, he might be happy yet.

How blind they had both been! He to believe that love had passed; she
to believe that love would never come. Desire paused with her hand upon
the library door. He was there. She could hear him talking to Yorick.
She had only to open the door ... but she did not open it. Yesterday
the library had been her kingdom, the heart of her widening world. Now
it was only a room in someone else's house. Yesterday she would have
gone in swiftly--hiding her gladness in a little net of everyday words.
But today she had no gladness and no words.

CHAPTER XXXI

Miss Davis had been in Bainbridge a week. Her cold was entirely better
and her nerves, she said, much rested. "This is such a restful place,"
murmured Miss Davis, selecting her breakfast toast with care.

"I'm glad you find it so," said Aunt Caroline. "Though, with the club
elections coming on next week--" she broke off to ask if Desire would
have more coffee.

Desire would have no more, thanks. Miss Campion, looking over her
spectacles, frowned faintly and took a second cup herself--an
indulgence which showed that she had something on her mind. Her nephew,
knowing this symptom, was not surprised when later she joined him on
the side veranda. Being a prompt person she began at once.

"Benis," she said, "I have a feeling--I am not at all satisfied about
Desire. If you know what is the matter with her I wish you would tell
me. I am not curious. I expect no one's confidence, nor do I ask for
it. But I have a right to object to mysteries, I think."

As Aunt Caroline spoke, she looked sternly at the smoke of the
professor's after-breakfast cigarette, the blue haze of which
temporarily clouded his expression. Benis took his time in answering.

"You think there is something the matter besides