ine hazel eyes--like a horse putting back its ears.

All of no avail--against the laughing persistence which insisted on the
letters. "But I must have them--I really must! It is a horrid tragedy,
and I told you everything--things I had no business to tell you at all."

On which, at last, a grudging consent to look, followed by a marked
determination to go back to the drawing-room....

But it was the second _tete-a-tete_ that was really adroit! After
tea--just a touch on the arm--while the Duchess was showing the Nattiers
to Mrs. Barnes, and Lelius was holding the lamp. "One moment more!--in
the conservatory. I have a few things to add." And in that second little
interview--about nothing, in truth--a mere piece of audacity--the lion's
claws had been a good deal pared. He had been made to look at her, first
and foremost; to realize that she was not afraid of him--not one
bit!--and that he would have to treat her decently. Poor Roger! In a few
years the girl he had married would be a plain and prickly little
pedant--ill-bred besides--and he knew it.

As to more recent adventures. If people meet in society, they must be
civil; and if old friends meet at a dance, there is an institution known
as "sitting out"; and "sitting out" is nothing if not conversational;
and conversation--between old friends and cousins--is beguiling, and may
be lengthy.

The ball at Brendon House--Chloe still felt the triumph of it in her
veins--still saw the softening in Roger's handsome face, the look of
lazy pleasure, and the disapproval--or was it the envy?--in the eyes of
certain county magnates looking on. Since then, no communication between
Heston and Upcott.

* * * * *

Mrs. Fairmile was now a couple of miles from the meet. She had struck
into a great belt of plantations bounding one side of the ducal estate.
Through it ran a famous green ride, crossed near its beginning by a main
road. On her right, beyond the thick screen of trees, was the railway,
and she could hear the occasional rush of a train.

When she reached the cross road, which led from a station, a labourer
opened the plantation gates for her. As he unlatched the second, she
perceived a man's figure in front of her.

"Roger!"

A touch of the whip--her horse sprang forward. The man in front looked
back startled; but she was already beside him.

"You keep up the old habit, like me? What a lovely day!"

Roger Barnes, after a flush of ama