ng down now. I
made her promise she would till half an hour before lunch. Nick's coming
for us, with his auto, at five. He wanted it to be earlier, but I told him
she was tired, and it would be too hot for her to walk around Lucky Star
in the glare, where there aren't any trees. It's all got to happen and be
over with before five, Simeon. She'll never see Nick's ranch she talks so
much of." Again Carmen shivered, and her eyes were wide and staring,
curiously glazed. She knew that she was looking almost plain to-day, and
had been actually terrified by her own face in the glass before she came
out to keep the appointment with Simeon Harp. But it did not matter what
she looked like before Simeon. When Nick came and saw her again next time
there would be reason why he would have no eyes for her. And later, when
all this was over, she would come back into her beauty again. She must!

"What time are you having lunch, my lady?" Simeon inquired in a
matter-of-fact tone, his harsh voice sounding just as usual.

"At one."

"And you'll send her out?"

"At half-past two."

"Right, my lady. That'll bring her to the place I want about three or a
little after."

"Yes. You're sure nothing can go wrong?"

"Sure as ever I was about a squirrel."

"Oh!" Carmen shivered, and turning away from him without another word she
went back to the house.

No one had seen them talking together; and even if they had been seen it
would not have mattered. Mrs. Gaylor often chatted with the old squirrel
poisoner, who was known to be devoted to her; a harmless creature who hurt
nobody--except himself and the squirrels.

XXVIII

THE DARK CLOUD IN THE CRYSTAL

When the musical gong sounded for luncheon, and Carmen came down from her
room at one o'clock, she found her guest already in the garden, as lovely
a garden as Angela had seen in her sleep. For a minute Carmen stood on a
step of the brick terrace, looking at the slender figure in white. Angela
did not hear the faint rustling of muslin. Her back was half turned to the
house, and she was watching the aerial architecture of the fountain,
delicate domes and pinnacles built of crystal. Carmen thought reluctantly
that Mrs. May looked very young in her white frock, not more than eighteen
or nineteen. She wondered if the love pirate enjoyed life very much, and
whether she really cared for Nick and wanted to marry him or whether she
was only flirting. Then the profile at which Carmen had