crept over her pale
face. Cairn raised his arm and clasped it about her shoulders.

"Tell me all about it," he whispered reassuringly.

"Well," continued Myra in evident confusion, "his behaviour
became--embarrassing; and suddenly--he asked me if I could ever love
him, not as a brother, but--"

"I understand!" said Cairn grimly. "And you replied?"

"For some time I could not reply at all: I was so surprised, and
so--horrified. I cannot explain how I felt about it, but it seemed
horrible--it seemed horrible!--"

"But of course, you told him?"

"I told him that I could never be fond of him in any different
way--that I could never _think_ of it. And although I endeavoured to
avoid hurting his feelings, he--took it very badly. He said, in such a
queer, choking voice, that he was going away--"

"Away!--from England?"

"Yes; and--he made a strange request."

"What was it?"

"In the circumstances--you see--I felt sorry for him--I did not like
to refuse him; it was only a trifling thing. He asked for a lock of my
hair!"

"A lock of your hair! And you--"

"I told you that I did not like to refuse--and I let him snip off a
tiny piece, with a pair of pocket scissors which he had. Are you
angry?"

"Of course not! You--were almost brought up together. You--?"

"Then--" she paused--"he seemed to change. Suddenly, I found myself
afraid--dreadfully afraid--"

"Of Ferrara?"

"Not of Antony, exactly. But what is the good of my trying to explain!
A most awful dread seized me. His face was no longer the face that I
have always known; something--"

Her voice trembled, and she seemed disposed to leave the sentence
unfinished; then:

"Something evil--sinister, had come into it."

"And since then," said Cairn, "you have not seen him?"

"He has not been here since then--no."

Cairn, his hands resting upon the girl's shoulders, leant back in the
seat, and looked into her troubled eyes with a kind of sad scrutiny.

"You have not been fretting about him?"

Myra shook her head.

"Yet you look as though something were troubling you. This house"--he
indicated the low-lying garden with a certain irritation--"is not
healthily situated. This place lies in a valley; look at the rank
grass--and there are mosquitoes everywhere. You do not look well,
Myra."

The girl smiled--a little wistful smile.

"But I was so tired of Scotland," she said. "You do not know how I
looked forward to London again. I must admit, though, th