ndings and generally content."

"Of course he loves being with my father," Damaris hastened to put in,
having no wish to enlarge on the topic suggested by the above speech.

"Of course. Who doesn't, or rather who wouldn't were they sufficiently
fortunate to have the chance. But come--to be honest--_je me demande_, is
it exclusively Sir Charles whom Carteret loves to be with?"

And as she spoke, Henrietta bent forward from the waist, her dainty
lavender skirts spread out on the faded blue of the sofa mattress, the
contours of her dainty lavender bodice in fine relief against the faded
blue cushions, her whole person, in the subdued light, bright and
apparently fragile as some delicate toy of spun glass. She put out her
hand, and lightly, mischievously, touched the string of pearls encircling
the girl's throat.

"And what is the meaning of these, then," she asked, "you sweetly
deceiving little puss!"

It was cleverly done, she flattered herself. She asserted nothing,
implied much, putting the onus of admission or denial upon Damaris. The
answer came with grave and unhesitating directness.

"Colonel Carteret gave them to me."

"So I imagined. They are the exquisite fruit, aren't they, of the little
expedition by train of two days ago?"

Damaris' temper rose, but so did her protective instinct. For that
journey to Marseilles, connected as it was with the dear secret of Darcy
Faircloth, did not admit of investigation by Henrietta.

"About where and when Colonel Carteret may have got them for me, I know
nothing," she returned. "He left them to be given to me last night
after he went."

She unclasped the necklace.

"They are very lovely pearls, aren't they? Pray look at them if you care
to, Henrietta," she said.

Thus at once invited and repulsed--for that it amounted to a repulse she
could not but acknowledge--Mrs. Frayling advised herself a temporary
retreat might be advisable. She therefore discoursed brightly concerning
pearls and suchlike costly frivolities. Inwardly covetousness consumed
her, since she possessed no personal ornament of even approximate value.

The conversation drifted. She learned the fact of Miss Felicia's
projected arrival, and deplored her own approaching exile the less. Only
once, long ago, had she encountered Miss Verity. The memory afforded her
no satisfaction, for that lady's peculiar brand of good breeding and--as
she qualified it--imbecility, did not appeal to her in the least. Th