g with him about his "lucky" polo stroke for a beginner; his
manner toward them was very different from what it had been just now to
herself; he seemed at ease and unembarrassed with them. One or two of
the girls appeared to have been eager--even anxious--to meet him; and
she found herself oddly resenting the attitude of these girls. Her
feeling was indefinite, vague; it made her flush and grow uncomfortable
to recognize dimly that there was in it some sense of a proprietorship
of her own in him which took alarm at seeing other girls attracted by
him; but underneath it was her uneasiness at his new manner to herself,
which hurt because she could not explain it. As the party finished
their tea, she looked across to him.

"Are you ready to go, Mr. Eaton?" she asked.

"Whenever Mr. Avery is ready."

"You needn't wait for him unless you wish; I'll drive you back," she
offered.

"Of course I'd prefer that, Miss Santoine."

They went out to her trap, leaving Donald to motor back alone. As soon
as she had driven out of the club grounds, she let the horse take its
own gait, and she turned and faced him.

"Will you tell me," she demanded, "what I have done this afternoon to
make you class me among those who oppose you?"

"What have you done? Nothing, Miss Santoine."

"But you are classing me so now."

"Oh, no," he denied so unconvincingly that she felt he was only putting
her off.

Harriet Santoine knew that what had attracted her friends to Eaton was
their recognition of his likeness to themselves; but what had impressed
her in seeing him with them was his difference. Was it some memory of
his former life that seeing these people had recalled to him, which had
affected his manner toward her?

Again she looked at him.

"Were you sorry to leave the club?" she asked.

"I was quite ready to leave," he answered inattentively.

"It must have been pleasant to you, though, to--to be among the sort of
people again that you--you used to know. Miss Furden"--she mentioned
one of the girls who had seemed most interested in him, the sister of
the boy whose place he had taken in the polo practice--"is considered a
very attractive person, Mr. Eaton. I have heard it said that a
man--any man--not to be attracted by her must be forearmed against her
by thought--or memory of some other woman whom he holds dear."

"She seemed very pleasant," he answered automatically.

"Only pleasant? You were forearmed, then," she said