in he traced the delicate hand of that lady. She had seen that,
if any guest was to remain at Coton Manor, a limit must be put to
the Colonel's opportunities for tormenting him.) Durant had ceased
to long for distraction; he was sufficiently entertained by the
situation itself.

X

If he had been on the lookout for distraction, he would have found
it in Georgie Chatterton. At Miss Tancred's request he went with her
to the station to meet the expected guest. It was evidently thought
that his presence would break the shock of her arrival.

It proved an unnecessary precaution. The young girl presented a
smiling face at the carriage window--the Tancred face, somewhat
obscured by a mass of irrelevant detail, sandy hair, freckles, a
sanguine complexion, and so on. She jumped out on to the platform
with a joyous cry of "Fridah!" She embraced "Fridah" impetuously,
and then kept her a moment at arm's length, examining her dubiously.
"You don't seem a bit glad to see me," was her verdict. She smiled
gaily at Durant, and held out a friendly hand. All the way up from
the station she conversed with them in a light-hearted manner.
Thus:--

"What do you people do down here?"

"Ask Mr. Durant; he'll tell you that we vegetate all day and play
whist all night."

"Oh, do you? Well, you know, I shan't. My goodness, Frida! is that
your house? Whatever is it like? A Unitarian chapel, or the Carlton
Club, or, stop a bit--you don't bury people in it, do you?" Then, as
it occurred to her that she might have hurt her cousin's feelings by
her last suggestion, she added, "It's rather a jolly old mausoleum,
though. I wonder what it's like inside."

If Miss Chatterton had any premonition of her own approaching death
by boredom, and had seen in Coton Manor more than a mere passing
resemblance to a tomb, she was neither awestruck nor downcast at the
prospect of dissolution. She flung herself into the vault as she had
flung herself onto the platform, all glowing with pleasurable
anticipation. To Durant there was something infinitely sad in the
spectacle of this young creature precipitating herself into the
unknown with such reckless and passionate curiosity. The whole long
evening through he could discover no diminution of her mood, her
gleeful determination to enjoy herself among the shades. She
behaved to Colonel Tancred as if he had been a celebrity whose
acquaintance she had long desired to make, a character replete with
interest and r