ot to see her.

Since the night of the dance no opportunity had occurred for observing
Carteret and Damaris when together.--Really, how General Frayling's
tiresome illness shipwrecked her private plans!--And, from the beginning,
she had entertained an uneasy suspicion regarding Carteret's attitude.
Men can be so extraordinarily feeble-minded where young girls are
concerned! Had anything happened during her withdrawal from society? In
the light, or rather the obscurity, of Carteret's letter, a visit to
Damaris became more than ever imperative.

Her own competence to extract the truth from that guileless maiden,
Henrietta in nowise questioned. "The child," she complacently told
herself, when preparing to set forth on her mission, "is like wax in
my hands."

The above conviction she repeated now, as the horses swept the victoria
along the shore road, while from beneath her white umbrella she
absently watched the alternate lift and plunge of the dazzling
ultramarine and Tyrian purple sea upon the polished rocks and pebbles
of the shelving beach.

To Henrietta Nature, save as decoration to the human drama, meant
nothing. But the day was hot, for the time of year royally so, and this
rejoiced her. She basked in the sunshine with a cat-like luxury of
content. Her hands never grew moist in the heat, nor her hair untidy, her
skin unbecomingly red, nor her general appearance in the least degree
blousy. She remained enchantingly intact, unaffected, except for an added
glint, an added refinement. To-day's temperature justified the adoption
of summer attire, of those thin, clear-coloured silk and muslin fabrics
so deliciously to her taste. She wore a lavender dress. It was new, every
pleat and frill inviolate, at their crispest and most uncrumpled. In this
she found a fund of permanent satisfaction steeling her to intrepid
enterprise.

Hence she scorned all ceremonies of introduction. She dared to pounce.
Having ascertained the number of Sir Charles Verity's sitting-room she
refused obsequious escort, tripped straight upstairs unattended, rapped
lightly, opened the door and--with swift reconnoitering of the scene
within--announced her advent thus:

"Damaris, are you there? Ah! yes. Darling child. At last!"

During that reconnoitering she inventoried impressions of the room and
its contents.--Cool, first--blue walls, blue carpet, blue upholstering of
sofa and of chairs. Not worn or shabby, but so graciously faded by sun
and