arm round her shoulder.

"Evelyn--Ladybird--have you nothing to say to me?"

"N--no," she answered in a choked voice, without uncovering her face;
"it wouldn't be any use."

"Why not? Am I so utterly devoid of understanding?"

"No--no. But you brave, strong sort of people can't ever know how hard
little things are for--for people like me. It has been so--dull
lately. You had--all those men, and--I was lonely. It was nice to have
some one--wanting me--some one not miles above my head. But I knew you
would be cross if I told you--and--and--" tears choked her
utterance--"oh, it's no good talking. You'd never understand."

"I understand this much, my dear," he said. "You are done up with the
strain of nursing, and badly in need of a change. But we shall soon
get away on leave now; and I will see to it that you shall never feel
dull or out of it again. Only one thing I insist upon--your intimacy
with--that man is at an end. No more riding with him; no more going to
his bungalow. From to-day you treat him and his sister as mere
acquaintances."

She faced him now with terror-stricken eyes. For while he spoke, she
had perceived the full extent of her dilemma.

"But, Theo--there isn't any need for that," she urged, with a thrill
of fear at her own boldness. "They would think it so odd. What
excuses could I possibly make?"

"That's your affair," Desmond answered unmoved. "You are a better hand
at it than I am. My only concern is that you shall put an end to this
equivocal state of things for good."

At that she hid her face again, with a sob of despair. "I can't do
it--I _can't_. It's impossible!" she murmured vehemently more to
herself than to him.

Her unexpected opposition fanned his smouldering wrath to a blaze. He
took her by the shoulder--not roughly, but very decisively.

"_Impossible!_ What am I to understand by that?"

It was the first time he had touched her untenderly; and she quivered
in every nerve.

"I--I don't know. I can't explain. But--it's true."

For one instant he stood speechless;--then:

"Great Heavens, Evelyn!" he broke out, "don't you see that you are
forcing upon me a suspicion that is an insult to us both?"

She looked up at him in blank bewilderment, then jerked herself free
from his hand.

"I--I don't understand what you mean. But if you _will_ think horrid
things of me you may. I can't explain and--I won't!"

"You--_won't_," Desmond repeated slowly, frozen incredulity in his
e