aking our journey at Exeter.

"We can't force Sir Beverley on Murray," Jim said. "It wouldn't be fair
to either of them." But I insisted.

"There's something odd about this," I told him. "Let's spin over to-day
instead of to-morrow, and tell the Murrays that Sir Beverley _would_ be
offended. I shall say to Rosemary that as we asked him to call, it would
be humiliating to us to have him treated in such a way."

I think Jim has laid down for himself a certain line of action with me.
He yields to me on all matters as to which he's comparatively
indifferent, so that I won't notice much when he turns into the Rock of
Gibraltar over big issues.

This was one of the occasions when he yielded, and we flashed to Ralston
Old Manor directly after luncheon. There wasn't time for a telegram to
be delivered there before our arrival, and the Manor had no 'phone, so
we appeared _en surprise_. And the "surprise" was a double one, for I
was amazed to come upon Mrs. Jennings walking with Rosemary down the elm
avenue. Evidently the visitor was going home, and her hostess was
accompanying her as far as the gate. Our car running along the drive
startled them from what seemed to be the most intimate talk. At sight of
us they both looked up, and their manner changed. Rosemary smiled a
welcome. Gaby smiled, in politeness. But before the smile there was the
fraction of a second when each face revealed something it didn't mean to
reveal--or I imagined it. Rosemary's had lost the look of exalted
happiness which had thrilled me on her wedding day. For that instant it
had a haunted look. As for Gaby, the fleeting expression of her face was
not so hard to understand. For some reason she was annoyed that we had
come, and felt an impulse of dislike toward us.

"Can those two have met before?" I asked myself. It seemed improbable:
yet it was odd that strangers who had known each other only a couple of
days should be on such terms.

They parted on the spot, when we had slowed down, Mrs. Jennings walking
on alone the short distance to the gate, and Rosemary getting into the
car with us, to drive to the house. I couldn't resist asking the
question, "Had you ever seen Mrs. Jennings before she was married?" For,
after all, there was no reason why I should not ask it. But Rosemary
looked me full in the face as she answered:

"No, I never met her until she and her husband called the day before
yesterday. She had been very kind about getting the house be