't know! Anyhow, women
seem to think it a great score to get hold of one. So that proves it,
don't you think?"

"Then why is it that your sisters, for instance, are always surrounded
by admirers?" said Aunt William.

"First of all, surrounded is bosh. Just as much as what you're always
saying, that Sylvia has the world at her feet. They happen to be
particularly pretty, and Felicity's jolly clever. But after all, they
have only one or two each--admirers, I mean. And _they_--the girls--are
exceptions."

Aunt William sighed.

"You're very worldly-wise, and you're a very clever boy, but you don't
know everything."

CHAPTER XXIV

THE EXPLANATION

The fact that Chetwode was returning more than a week sooner than she
had expected, seemed to Felicity a hopeful sign. She hesitated for about
half an hour as to whether or not she should go and meet him at the
station. Doubt and dignity suggested remaining at home, but impatience
carried the day.

As she was waiting on the platform, the prophecy of Madame Zero occurred
to her, and she thought to herself, with a smile--

"She doesn't seem so bad at prophesying what one's _going_ to do. It's
when she prophesies what one _ought_ to have done that the poor dear
gets out of her depth."

When he had arrived, and they were driving off together, she thought he
looked neither more nor less serene and casual than usual; his actual
presence seemed to radiate calm and dispose of anxiety; her suspicions
began to melt away.

They had dined together, and talked on generalities, and neither had
mentioned the subject. Chetwode's intense dislike to any disturbing
topic infected Felicity; she now felt a desire to let him off even an
explanation. She wished she had never seen the velvet case, or, at any
rate, that she had never mentioned it to any one. He didn't, she
fancied, look as if he were deceiving her in any way. His affection was
not more marked than usual, nor less so. She observed there was no tinge
in his manner of an attempt to make up for anything. Yet the question
had to be asked.

"What did you do most of the time there?" began Felicity.

"Nothing. Played bridge."

"By the way," said Felicity, "you've never told me what _Mrs._
Tregelly's like."

"Of course I haven't. She isn't like anything."

"Isn't she very pretty?"

"Oh, I suppose she's all right--for Tregelly," said Chetwode.

"Then if you don't admire her at all, would you mind telling me why you