aid nothing. He was startled, for Joan's face was white,
and her lips were compressed. And in Joan's brain was dinning the
question. "He here--what does he do here? Has he come here to torment me
further, to pester and plague and annoy me with his speeches that I will
never listen to? How dare he come here?"

He had seen her, had paused. He lifted his hand to his hat and raised
it, but Joan stared straight before her.

It was the cut direct, and there came a dusky red into Hugh's face as he
realised the fact.

CHAPTER XXXI

"IF YOU NEED ME"

Naturally enough, Johnny Everard, seeing Ellice, would have stopped. He
had his foot on the clutch and was feeling for the brake when Joan
realised his intention.

"Please drive on! Please drive straight on!"

And Johnny, receiving his instructions, obeyed them without hesitation.
Another moment, and Joan regretted. But it was too late, the car had
gone on; the two figures, the man and the girl with the bicycle, were
left behind. It was too late--and the girl felt almost shocked by what
she had done.

But Joan's temper was on edge, the day had lost any beauty that it might
have held for her. She wanted to get back, she wanted to be alone, she
wanted to decide, to think things out for herself.

Johnny looked at her. This was beyond his understanding. What had
happened? Was it the man who had caused Joan to look so white and angry,
or was it Ellice?

It could hardly be the man after all, for she had evidently not known
him. She had not recognised him in any way.

Johnny was not good at guess-work. Here was something beyond him. If it
were Ellice, then why should the sight of Ellice upset Joan? And why--it
came to him suddenly--had Joan cut Ellice?

For in cutting the man Joan had also cut the girl, and had not thought,
the girl meaning little or nothing to her.

"Johnny, I--I--don't think me unkind--or ungracious--but--I would like
to go back soon. I don't mean--" She paused. "Let's go back by way of
Bennerden."

It meant that she did not want to go back by the same road with the
chance of seeing those two again.

Ellice's cheeks were burning, and her eyes were bright with anger. Joan
Meredyth had cut her, and it seemed to her that Johnny had aided and
abetted.

Then she happened to glance at Hugh Alston, and intuition prompted her.

"I think you know her," she said quickly.

"Yes, I--I know her."

"And she was not pleased to see you?"

"Apparently