and then a secret
gurgle as of a laugh suppressed.

They halted on the mossy bank, Nick's arm affording active support. Olga
looked down thoughtfully into the running water.

"The last time I was here," she said slowly, "was on the day I went to
the Priory to--ask--Violet--to come and stay with me. That must be ages
ago."

"Oh, ages!" said Nick.

She turned to him with a puzzled air. "I wonder Violet hasn't been to
see me, Nick. Where is she?"

His flickering eyes were searching the stream. "She's gone away," he
said.

"Oh! Where has she gone?"

"Haven't a notion," he said indifferently.

"I wonder I haven't heard," mused Olga. "I suppose she hasn't written?"

"Not to my knowledge," said Nick. His attention was obviously still
fixed upon the babbling water.

"Oh, well, she hardly ever does write," commented Olga. "And you don't
know where she is gone?"

"I do not," said Nick.

At this point his preoccupation seemed to strike her. "What are you
looking at?" she asked.

He nodded towards a clump of ferns that fringed the bank. "I thought I
saw my friend the scarlet butterfly. There is a beauty lives hereabouts.
Yes; by Jove, there he is! See him, Olga?"

Even as he spoke the scarlet butterfly emerged from its hiding place and
fluttered down the stream.

Olga uttered a sharp cry that brought Nick's eyes to her face. "What's
the matter, kiddie? What is it?"

For a moment she was too overcome to tell him. Then: "Oh, Nick," she
said, "I saw that butterfly the last time I was here. It was fluttering
along just like that. And then--all of a sudden--a dreadful green
dragon-fly flashed out on it, and--and--I didn't see it any more."

"Cheer up!" said Nick. "Evidently it escaped."

"Oh, I wonder!" she said, in a voice of puzzled distress. "I do wonder!"

His shrewd glance returned to the moth quivering like a flower petal in
the breeze. "Well, there it is!" he said cheerily. "Let's give it the
benefit of the doubt."

Her face did not wholly clear. "I wish I knew," she said. "Do you
really think it can be the same, Nick?"

"I've never seen more than one," said Nick, "so it would appear to be a
more artful dodger than you took it for. I don't see friend dragon-fly
anywhere about."

She shuddered suddenly and convulsively. "No, and I hope he isn't here.
Do you know what he made me think of? Max; so strong, so merciless, and
so horribly clever."

"I'm clever too," said Nick modestly.

"Oh, but in a di