try estate with a big bungalow-built house on the eastern hills
overlooking the Swan River.

The only difficulty appeared ahead to Sir Arthur was some mysterious
connection with the Raleighs and the Garthornes. It was, of course,
impossible that the wedding could take place without their knowledge, if
Sir Arthur was to give Carol away as he intended to do, and yet the
moment that Garthorne's name was mentioned Carol had turned white to the
lips and a look of deadly fear had come into her eyes.

"No, no," she said, "not them, I can't tell you why, and you mustn't ask
me. You have been very good to me, and you are going to do more for me
than ever was done to a girl like me before, but sooner than meet them I
would run away again as I did from Melville Gardens. I would, really,
but you must not ask me why; there are some things that cannot be told."

After this Sir Arthur, finding it impossible to get any inkling of the
mystery from Carol, asked Dora if she could tell him the meaning of it,
and she too turned white. She did not reply for a few moments, and then
she said:

"No, Sir Arthur, I cannot tell you. All I can say is that Carol is
perfectly right. It would be utterly impossible for her to meet either
Sir Reginald Garthorne or his son, and of course she could not meet Mrs.
Garthorne without meeting her husband. There is a reason, and a very
solemn one, too, for this, but I can assure you, Sir Arthur----"

"That is enough, Miss Russell," said Sir Arthur gravely. "I am perfectly
satisfied, and I have no right to ask for an explanation. The wedding
shall be absolutely private; no one shall be asked except ourselves.
Vane shall marry them early in the morning, we will come back here for
lunch, and then they will go straight off to Paris. I will tell the
Garthornes about it afterwards."

"Yes," said Dora, "I think that would be best."

That night Carol and Dora had a talk in Carol's room. It was rather a
discussion perhaps than a conversation, and the question was whether Sir
Arthur and Vane should be told the dreadful secret which Carol had
discovered at Reginald Garthorne's wedding. Carol, clean-hearted and
straightforward as she was naturally, shrank in horror from such a
revelation as this; but Dora, whose nature was deeper, and who had a
stronger religious bias, felt that at all hazards the truth should be
told, horrible as it was.

"That man Garthorne," she said, "is a brute. I am perfectly certain that
he