had made a criminal
blunder she had--though she didn't deserve it--been able to rectify the
blunder. May Dashwood was coming! Again: "_That_ for Belinda and Co.!"

The girl came forward and looked round the room. She held two books in
her hand, one the Warden had lent her on her arrival--a short guide to
Oxford. She was still going about with it gazing earnestly at the print
from time to time in bird-like fashion.

"Mrs. Jack Dashwood is arriving this afternoon," said Lady Dashwood as
she moved towards the door.

"Oh," said Gwen, and she stood still in the glow of the windows, her two
books conspicuous in her hand. She looked at the nearest low easy-chair
and dropped into it, propped one book on her knee and opened the other
at random. Then she gazed down at the page she had opened and then
looked round the room at Lady Dashwood, keenly aware that she was a
beautiful young girl looking at an elderly woman.

"Mrs. Dashwood is my husband's niece by marriage," said Lady Dashwood.

"Oh, yes," said Gwen, who would have been more interested if the subject
of the conversation had been a man and not a woman.

"You don't happen to know if the Warden has come back?" asked Lady
Dashwood as she moved to the door.

"He is back," said Gwen, and a slightly deeper colour came into her
cheeks and spread on to the creamy whiteness of her slender neck.

"In his library?" asked Lady Dashwood, stopping short and listening for
the reply.

"Yes!" said Gwen, and then she added: "He has lent me another book."
Here she fingered the book on her knee. "A book about
the--what-you-may-call-'ems of King's, I'm sorry but I can't remember.
We were talking about them at lunch--a word like 'jumps'!"

If a man had been present Gwen would have dimpled and demanded sympathy
with large lingering glances; she would have demanded sympathy and
approbation for not knowing the right word and only being able to
suggest "jumps."

One thing Gwen had already learned: that men are kinder in their
criticism than women! It was priceless knowledge.

"Founders, I suppose you mean," said Lady Dashwood and she opened the
door. "Never mind," she said to herself as she closed the door behind
her. "Never mind--May is coming--'Jumps!' What a self-satisfied little
monkey the girl is!"

At the head of the staircase it was rather dark and Lady Dashwood put on
the lights. Immediately at right angles to the drawing-room door two or
three steps led up to a corridor th