a view of the road
along which Jim and Ronald Mackenzie would presently be driving.

She hardly knew why she had come. It was certainly not to watch for Jim.
And if there was any idea in her mind of catching a glimpse of Ronald
Mackenzie, herself unobserved by him, so that she might by a flash gain
some insight into the character of a man who had interested her, she was
probably giving herself useless trouble, for it was not yet three
o'clock and the two men were not likely to arrive for another half-hour
or more.

But she had no sooner taken her stand by the stone wall and looked down
at the road from under the shade of the great beech which overhung it,
than Jim's dog-cart swung round the corner, and Ronald Mackenzie,
sitting by his side, had looked up and sent a glance from his bold dark
eyes right through her. She had not had time to draw back; she had been
fairly caught. She drew back now, and coloured with annoyance as she
pictured to herself the figure she must have presented to him, a girl so
interested in his coming and going that she must lie in wait for him,
and take up her stand an hour or so before he might have been expected.
At any rate, he should not find her submissively waiting for him when he
drove up to the door. She would keep out of the way until tea-time, and
he might find somebody else to entertain him.

The shrubbery walk, which skirted the road, wound for over a mile round
the park, and if she followed it she would come, by way of the kitchen
gardens and stableyard, to the house again, and could regain her bedroom
unseen, at the cost of a walk rather longer than she would willingly
have undertaken on this hot afternoon. But it was the only thing to do.
If she went back by the way she had come, she might meet Jim and his
friend in the garden, and of course they would think she had come on
purpose to see them. If she crossed the park she ran the risk of being
seen. So she kept to the shelter of the trees, and followed the windings
of the path briskly, and in rather a bad temper.

At a point about half-way round the circle, the dense shrubbery widened
into a spinney, and cut through it transversely was a broad grass ride,
which opened up a view of the park and the house. When Cicely reached
this point she looked to her right, and caught her breath in her throat
sharply, for she saw Ronald Mackenzie striding down the broad green path
towards her. He was about fifty yards away, but it was impossi