yself, "whether I did well to bring her
here!"

Mabane laughed shortly.

"It was not you who brought her," he declared. "She was sent."

"Sent?"

"Aye, these things are not of our choosing, Arnold. There is something
behind which drives the great wheels. You can call it Fate or God,
according to your philosophy. It is there all the time, the one eternal
force."

I looked at Mabane steadfastly. He did not flinch.

"Psychologically, my dear Allan," I said, "you appear to be in a very
interesting state just now."

Mabane shrugged his shoulders. He crossed the room for some tobacco, and
began to refill his pipe.

"Well," he said, "I have finished. To-morrow, I suppose, I shall want to
kick myself for having said as much as I have. Listen! Here they come."

Isobel came into the room, followed by Arthur in a leather jacket and
breeches. Her cheeks were pink, her eyes danced with excitement. She
threw off her tam-o'-shanter, and stood deftly re-arranging for a moment
her wind-tossed hair.

"Glorious!" she exclaimed. "Oh, it has been glorious! Mr. Arthur, how
can I thank you? I have never enjoyed myself so much in my life. If the
Sister Superior could only have seen me--and the girls!"

"Motoring, I presume," Mabane remarked, "is amongst the pleasures denied
to the young ladies of the convent?"

She laughed gaily.

"Pleasures! Why, there are no pleasures for those poor girls. One may
not even smile, and as for games, even they are not permitted. I think
that it is shameful to make such a purgatory of a place. One may not,
one could not, be happy there. It is not allowed."

She caught the look which flashed from Mabane to me, and turned
instantly around.

"Oh, Monsieur Arnold," she cried breathlessly, "you do not think--I
shall not have to return there?"

"Not likely!" Arthur interposed with vigour. "By Jove! if anyone shut
you up there again I'd come and fetch you out."

She threw a quick glance of gratitude towards him, but her eyes returned
almost immediately to mine. She waited anxiously for me to speak.

"If we can possibly prevent it," I said slowly, "you shall never return
there. I do not think that it is at all the proper place for you. But
you must remember that we are, after all, people of no authority.
Someone might come forward to-morrow with a legal right to claim you,
and we should be helpless."

[Illustration: "If we can possibly prevent it," I said slowly, "you
shall never return there."