lives such things, a woman never. And, for the sake of
your own future I beg you to consider this matter and I trust that you
may not misconstrue the motive which has given me the courage to write
you what has caused me deepest concern.

"Very sincerely yours,

"LILY COLLIS."

To which Valerie replied:

"MY DEAR, MRS. COLLIS: I have to thank you for your excellent intentions
in writing me. But with all deference to your wider experience I am
afraid that I must remain the judge of my own conduct. Pray, believe
that, in proportion to your sincerity, I am grateful to you; and that I
should never dream of being discourteous to Mr. Neville's sister if I
venture to suggest to her that liberty of conscience is a fundamental
scarcely susceptible of argument or discussion.

"I assume that you would not care to have Mr. Neville know of this
correspondence, and for that reason I am returning to you your letter so
that you may be assured of its ultimate destruction.

"Very truly yours,

"VALERIE WEST."

Which letter and its reply made Valerie deeply unhappy; and she wrote
Neville a little note saying that she had gone to the country with
Helene d'Enver for a few days' rest.

The countess had taken a house among the hills at Estwich; and as chance
would have it, about eight miles from Ashuelyn and Penrhyn Cardemon's
great establishment, El Nauar.

Later Valerie was surprised and disturbed to learn of the proximity of
Neville's family, fearing that if Mrs. Collis heard of her in the
neighbourhood she might misunderstand.

But there was only scant and rough communication between Ashuelyn and
Estwich; the road was a wretched hill-path passable only by buck-boards;
Westwich was the nearest town to Ashuelyn and El Nauar and the city of
Dartford, the county seat most convenient to Estwich.

Spring was early; the Estwich hills bloomed in May; and Helene d'Enver
moved her numerous household from the huge Castilione Apartment House
to Estwich and settled down for a summer of mental and physical
recuperation.

Valerie, writing to Neville the first week in May, said:

"Louis, the country here is divine. I thought the shaggy, unkempt hills
of Delaware County were heavenly--and they _were_ when you came and made
them so--but this rich, green, well-ordered country with its hills and
woods and meadows of emerald--its calm river, its lovely little brooks,
its gardens, hedges, farms, is to me the most wonderful land I ever
looke