hoped that she would at least have gone so far as to explain her anxiety
to keep her whereabouts secret.

"You must remember," he went on, after a short pause, "that I am in
a somewhat peculiar position with regard to you, Beatrice. I know so
little that I do not even know how to answer in your interests such
questions as Mrs. Wenham Gardner asked me. I am not complaining, but is
this state of absolute ignorance necessary?"

A new thought seemed to come to Beatrice. She looked at her companion
curiously.

"Tell me," she asked, "what did you think of Mrs. Wenham Gardner?"

Tavernake answered deliberately, and after a moment's reflection.

"I thought her," he said, "one of the most beautiful women I have ever
seen in my life. That is not saying very much, perhaps, but to me it
meant a good deal. She was exceedingly gracious and her interest in you
seemed quite real and even affectionate. I do not understand why you
should wish to hide from such a woman."

"You found her attractive?" Beatrice persisted.

"I found her very attractive indeed," Tavernake admitted, without
hesitation. "She had an air with her. She was quite different from all
the women I have ever met at the boarding-house or anywhere else. She
has a face which reminded me somehow of the Madonnas you took me to see
in the National Gallery the other day."

Beatrice shivered slightly. For some reason, his remark seemed to have
distressed her.

"I am very, very sorry," she declared, "that Elizabeth ever came to
your office. I want you to promise me, Leonard, that you will be careful
whenever you are with her."

Tavernake laughed.

"Careful!" he repeated. "She isn't likely to be even civil to me
tomorrow when I tell her that I have seen you and I refuse to give her
your address. Careful, indeed! What has a poor clerk in a house-agent's
office to fear from such a personage?"

The servant had reappeared with their second and last course. For a few
moments they spoke of casual subjects. Afterwards, however, Tavernake
asked a question.

"By the way," he said, "we are hoping to let Grantham House to Mrs.
Wenham Gardner. I suppose she must be very wealthy?"

Beatrice looked at him curiously.

"Why do you come to me for information?" she demanded. "I suppose that
she brought you references?"

"We haven't quite got to that stage yet," he answered. "Somehow or
other, from her manner of talking and general appearance, I do not think
that either Mr. Dow