tless children might have done. They would look at one another
with frank, clear eyes and smile.

Once, when their pathway led through a littered farm-yard, he had taken
her up in his arms and carried her and she had felt a glad pride in him
that he had borne her lightly as if she had been a child, looking up at
her and laughing.

An old bent man paused from his work and watched them. "Lean more over
him, missie," he advised her. "That's the way. Many a mile I've carried
my lass like that, in flood time; and never felt her weight."

Often on returning home, not knowing why, she would look into the glass.
It seemed to her that the girlhood she had somehow missed was awakening
in her, taking possession of her, changing her. The lips she had always
seen pressed close and firm were growing curved, leaving a little
parting, as though they were not quite so satisfied with one another. The
level brows were becoming slightly raised. It gave her a questioning
look that was new to her. The eyes beneath were less confident. They
seemed to be seeking something.

One evening, on her way home from a theatre, she met Flossie. "Can't
stop now," said Flossie, who was hurrying. "But I want to see you: most
particular. Was going to look you up. Will you be at home to-morrow
afternoon at tea-time?"

There was a distinct challenge in Flossie's eye as she asked the
question. Joan felt herself flush, and thought a moment.

"Yes," she answered. "Will you be coming alone?"

"That's the idea," answered Flossie; "a heart to heart talk between you
and me, and nobody else. Half-past four. Don't forget."

Joan walked on slowly. She had the worried feeling with which, once or
twice, when a schoolgirl, she had crawled up the stairs to bed after the
head mistress had informed her that she would see her in her private room
at eleven o'clock the next morning, leaving her to guess what about. It
occurred to her, in Trafalgar Square, that she had promised to take tea
with the Greysons the next afternoon, to meet some big pot from America.
She would have to get out of that. She felt it wouldn't do to put off
Flossie.

She went to bed wakeful. It was marvellously like being at school again.
What could Flossie want to see her about that was so important? She
tried to pretend to herself that she didn't know. After all, perhaps it
wasn't that.

But she knew that it was the instant Flossie put up her hands in order to
take off