, I'd no be grudgin' a fee."

"No good, mother of mine. I lost my heart to Nan here too long ago,
and now"--with a lightness of tone that effectually concealed his
feelings--"not to be outdone by Penny, she herself has gone and got
engaged. So I shall live and die alone."

"And what like is the man ye've chosen?" demanded Eliza, turning to
Nan. "Not another of these music-daft creatures, I hope?"

"I think you'll quite approve, Aunt Eliza," answered Nan with a
becoming meekness. "I'm engaged to marry Roger Trenby."

"Well, I hope ye'll be happier than maist o' the married folks I ken.
Eh!"--with a chuckle--"but Roger's picked a stick for his own back!"

Nan smiled.

"Do you think I'll be so bad to live with, then?"

"'Tisn't so much that you'll be bad with intent. But you're that
Varincourt woman's own great-grand-daughter. Not that ye can help it,
and I'm no blamin' ye for it. But 'tis wild blood!"

Nan rose, laughing, and kissed her aunt.

"After such a snub as that, I think I'd better take myself off. It's
really time I started, as I'm walking."

"Let me run you back in the car," suggested Sandy eagerly.

"No, thanks. I'm taking the short cut home through the woods."

Sandy accompanied her down the drive. At the gates he stopped abruptly.

"Nan," he said quietly. "Is it quite O.K. about your engagement?
You'll be really happy with Trenby?"

Nan paused a moment. Then she spoke, very quietly and with a touch of
cynicism quite foreign to the fresh, sweet outlook upon life which had
been hers before she had ever met Maryon Rooke.

"I don't suppose I should be really happy with anyone, Sandy. I want
too much. . . . But it's quite O.K. and you needn't worry."

With a parting nod she started off along the ribbon of road which wound
its way past the gates of Trevarthen Wood, and then, dipping into the
valley, climbed the hill beyond and lost itself in the broad highway of
light which shimmered from the western sky. Presently she turned aside
from the road and, scrambling through a gap in a stone wall, plunged
into the cool shadows of the woods. A heavy rain had fallen during the
night, soaking the thirsty earth, and the growing green things were all
responsively alive and vivid once again, while the clean, pleasant
smell of damp soil came fragrantly to her nostrils.

Though she tramped manfully along, Nan found her progress far from
swift, for the surface of the ground was sticky and sodden