wished to know
him better, though she already hated him. His face attracted her
strangely, and his voice was pleasant, close to her ear. He had not in
the least the look of the traditional lady-killer, of whom the tradition
seems to survive as a moral scarecrow for the education of the young,
though the creature is extinct among Anglo-Saxons. He was, on the
contrary, a manly man, who looked as though he would prefer tennis to
tea and polo to poetry--and men to women for company, as a rule. She
felt that if she had not heard him talking with the lady in white she
should have liked him very much. As it was, she said to herself that she
wished she might never see him again--and all the time her eyes returned
again and again to his sunburnt face and profile, till in a few minutes
she knew his features by heart.

CHAPTER IV

A chance acquaintance may, under favourable circumstances, develop
faster than one brought about by formal introduction, because neither
party has been previously led to expect anything of the other. There is
no surer way of making friendship impossible than telling two people
that they are sure to be such good friends, and are just suited to each
other. The law of natural selection applies to almost everything we want
in the world, from food and climate to a wife.

When Clare and her mother had established themselves as usual on the
terrace under the vines that afternoon, Brook came and sat beside them
for a while. Mrs. Bowring liked him and talked easily with him, but
Clare was silent and seemed absent-minded. The young man looked at her
from time to time with curiosity, for he was not used to being treated
with such perfect indifference as she showed to him. He was not spoilt,
as the phrase goes, but he had always been accustomed to a certain
amount of attention, when he met new people, and, without being in the
least annoyed, he thought it strange that this particular young lady
should seem not even to listen to what he said.

Mrs. Bowring, on the other hand, scarcely took her eyes from his face
after the first ten minutes, and not a word he spoke escaped her. By
contrast with her daughter's behaviour, her earnest attention was very
noticeable. By degrees she began to ask him questions about himself.

"Do you expect your people to-morrow?" she inquired.

Clare looked up quickly. It was very unlike her mother to show even that
small amount of curiosity about a stranger. It was clear that