now you think it `queer' when we go away. Isn't that a little
unreasonable?"

"It is `queer' to be so mysterious about where you are going. People
ordinarily--"

"Very well, then! We are _not_ ordinary. Let us leave it at that. It
is much more interesting to be mysterious. Perhaps we are really two
authors of world-wide fame, who but ourselves in the country for a short
rest now and then between our dazzling spells of industry."

Delphine gaped, hesitated, then laughed complacently.

"Oh, well, Mrs Fane is the sort of person who might be _anything_. But
not you, Evelyn; certainly not you! You are not--"

"What?"

"Clever enough!" she cried bluntly. The next minute, with one of the
swift, child-like impulses which made her so lovable, she threw her arms
round my neck and kissed me vehemently. "But you are good--good and
kind. That's better than all the cleverness. Forgive me, Evelyn; I'm a
rude, bad-tempered thing. Kiss and be friends!"

Ralph Maplestone seized his hat and marched out of the room.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

A STARTLING PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE.

His afternoon the Squire, in his capacity of churchwarden, spent an hour
with the Vicar in his study, and then joined us for tea on the lawn. It
was a hot, airless, summer afternoon, and we were all rather silent and
disinclined to eat, and I felt my eyes wandering to the big grey car
which stood waiting outside the gate and wishing--many things!

I wished that I had a car of my own. I wished I had my dear old Dinah,
on whose back I had been wont to roam the country-side. So long as
Charmion and the garden had absorbed my attention I had been contented
enough, but now an overwhelming restlessness seized me. I was tired of
the slow movement of my own feet. I longed to move quickly, to feel the
refreshing rush of air on my cheeks once more. I wished the
woman-hating, unappreciative Ralph Maplestone, had been a kind,
considerate, understanding, put-your-self-in-her-place sort of man, who
would have offered his time, and his car, and his services as chauffeur.

"Delphine, would you like to have a run in the car for a couple of hours
or so before dinner?"

We jumped on our chairs, Delphine and I, automatically, like
marionettes, the one from pleasure, the other from surprise. Had he
seen? Had he noticed? The light blue eyes stared coolly ahead. For
pure callous indifference their expression could not have been beaten.
Coincidence! Nothi