me the guardian
of his son, and I've had to overhaul the chap's property almost before
the funeral was over."

A frown of nervous irritation wrinkled his forehead, but as he turned to
her it faded quickly before the kindling animation in his look. "By
Jove, I've thought of you every single minute since I was here," he
pursued. "What a persistent way you have of interfering with a fellow's
peace of mind. I've known nothing like it in my life."

"I hope at least I didn't damage the property," she observed, and almost
with the words she wondered why she had longed so passionately yesterday
for his presence. Now that he had come she felt neither the delight of
realised expectation nor the final peace of renouncement.

"Well, it wasn't your fault if you didn't," he replied, leaning his head
against the chair-back and looking at her with his intimate and charming
smile. "I had to fight hard enough to keep you out even of the stocks.
Was I as much in your way, I wonder?"

She shook her head. "In my way? I wouldn't allow it. Why should I?"

"Why, indeed?" his genial irony was in his glance and he held her gaze
until she felt the warm blood mount swiftly to her forehead. "Why,
indeed unless you wanted to?" he laughed.

His eyes moved to the window, and she followed the large, slightly
coarsened features of his profile and the fullness of his jaw which lent
a suggestion of brutality to his averted face. Was it possible that she
found an attraction in mere animal vitality? She wondered; then his
caressing glance was turned upon her, and she forgot to ask herself the
useless question.

"So I must presume, then, that I haven't disturbed you?" he enquired
gayly.

Her eyes lingered upon him for a moment before she answered. "Oh, no, it
wasn't you, it was Gerty," she replied.

He drew nearer until the arm of his chair touched her own. "I thought at
least that my character was safe with Gerty," he exclaimed, not without
the annoyance of an easily aroused vanity.

"I don't know what you'd think about the danger," she returned with
seriousness, "but I simply hate the kind of things she told me."

His frown returned with gathered energy. "Is that so? What were they?"

"Oh, I don't know--nothing definite--but about women generally."

"Women! Pshaw! You're the only woman. There isn't any other on the
earth."

Her hand lay on the arm of her chair, and he reached out and grasped her
wrist, not gently, but with a violent press