t I did with the sample. Oh, why can't
everybody be happy?"

The car turned out of the road into the avenue of elms, which led to the
Georgian house of red brick, with its quaint hooded doorway. In front of
the door there was a flagged walk edged with box; and after the car had
gone, Corinna followed this walk to the back of the house, where rows of
white and purple iris were blooming on the garden terrace. For a moment
she looked on the garden as one who loved it; then turning reluctantly,
she ascended the steps, and entered the door which a coloured servant
held open.

"A lady's in there waiting for you," said the man, who having lost the
dialect, still retained the dramatic gestures of his race. "She would
wait, and she says she can't go without seeing you."

With a faintness of the heart rather than the mind, Corinna looked
through the doorway, and saw the face of Alice Rokeby glimmering
narcissus white in the dusk of the drawing-room.

CHAPTER XIX

THE SIXTH SENSE

As Corinna went forward, with that strange premonitory chill at her
heart, it seemed to her that all the fragrance of the garden floated
toward her with a piercing sweetness that was the very essence of youth
and spring. Through the wide-open French windows she could see the
garden terrace, the pale rows of iris, and the straight black cedars
rising against the pomegranate-coloured light of the afterglow. A few
tall white candles were shining in old silver candlesticks; but it was
by the vivid tint in the sky that she saw the large, frightened eyes of
the woman who was waiting for her.

"If I had only known you were here, I should have hurried home," began
Corinna cordially. Drawing a chair close to her visitor, she sat down
with a movement that was protecting and reassuring. Her quick sympathies
were already aroused. She surmised that Alice Rokeby had come to her
because she was in trouble; and it was not in Corinna's nature to refuse
to hear or to help any one who appealed to her.

Alice threw back her lace veil as if she were stifled by the transparent
mesh. "In the shop there are so many interruptions," she answered. "I
wanted to see you--" Breaking off hurriedly, she hesitated an instant,
and then repeated nervously, "I wanted to see you--"

Corinna smiled at her. "Would you like to go out into the garden? May
is so lovely there."

"No, it is very pleasant here." Alice made a vague, helpless gesture
with her small hands, and sai