anished like a bubble."

"It is just as well. You couldn't possibly marry her and bring her back
to Rickwell as your wife."

"Why not? She is innocent. You said yourself that she was."

"And I believe it. I have stood up for her all through. All the same,
Ware, there would be a scandal if she came back as Mrs. Ware."

"I don't care two straws for that," said Giles, flinging back his head.

"No," she replied dryly, "I know that. You're an obstinate man, as any
one can see with half an eye. Well, I'm glad to see you again. Sit down
in the armchair yonder and tell me what you have been doing all these
months. No good, if your face is the index of your mind."

Ware laughed, and sitting down managed to stow his long legs out of the
way--no easy matter in the little room. Then he accepted a cup of
excellent tea from Mrs. Parry and some of her celebrated cake.

He did not reply immediately, as he did not want to tell her the truth.
She had too long a tongue to be told anything which it was necessary to
keep secret. He put her off as he best could with a general answer.

"I have just been going to and fro."

"Like Satan," sniffed Mrs. Parry. "He's your model, is he? So you have
been searching for Anne. Where?"

"In Paris and in London. But I can't find her."

"She doesn't want you to find her," replied the old lady. "If she did,
you would stand face to face with her soon enough."

"That goes without the speaking," retorted Ware. "However, my adventures
would not amuse you, Mrs. Parry. Suppose you tell me what has been
going on in these parts?"

"As if I knew anything of what was going on," said Mrs. Parry.

Giles laughed.

It was a fiction with Mrs. Parry that she never interfered with other
people's business, whereas there was not a pie within miles into which
she had not thrust her finger. But he knew how to start her tongue.

"The Morleys, what about them?"

"No change, Ware. The Tricolor has gone to school--I mean the three
children--although I can't get out of the habit of calling them by that
ridiculous name. Mrs. Morley is as dismal as ever, and seems to miss
Anne very much."

"As well she might. Anne was a good friend to her. And Morley?"

"He has found a new friend," said Mrs. Parry triumphantly, "a man called
Franklin."

"George Franklin!" cried Ware, startled, for he had heard all about the
fortune from Steel. "He is the man who inherited the five thousand a
year that Powell left to Daisy. Ste