after another in relentless sequence; they merged together in nebulous
confusion. Then suddenly her thoughts switched to another topic.

"Teresa!" she found herself repeating, "Teresa Mallison!" With critical
accuracy she was conjuring up the picture of a tall, thickly built girl,
with fair hair, fresh complexion, and a narrow, long-chinned face. In
Chumley circles Teresa Mallison was considered a pretty girl, and pretty
she was, and would be, so long as the glow of youth disguised the
harshness of her features. Cassandra acknowledged as much with the
generosity which most women show towards the attractions of their
sisters, difficult as masculine incredulity finds it to credit the fact.
Teresa Mallison was quite a pleasant sort of girl, amiable and
unaffected, and quite angelic about accepting eleventh-hour invitations
to fill a vacant place. One way and another she had been a fairly
frequent visitor at the Court, during the last year, but imagine
_choosing_ to live all one's life with such a companion! Imagine
breakfasting throughout the years with Teresa Mallison as a _vis-a-vis_;
being sad with Teresa, glad with Teresa, living day after day with
Teresa; growing old, dying, always, always with Teresa; watching her
heavy form grow heavier, her long face longer, seeing the wrinkles
gather round the light blue eyes, listening always, for ever, to the
thin, toneless voice, the recurrent spasms of laughter. Dane Peignton
too; Peignton of all men! Not one of the ordinary, uninteresting
Chumley natives, but the most attractive bachelor in the neighbourhood!
That made the mystery deeper.

Dane Peignton was a comparatively new-comer to the neighbourhood; was in
fact only a bird of passage, being a temporary tenant of a small place a
few miles distant from the Court, during its owner's sojourn abroad.
Peignton had retired from the Army after a serious breakdown in health,
and being not overburdened with this world's goods, had been delighted
to accept from old friends the loan of a house for a couple of years,
the responsibility of superintending the up-keep of the estate being
taken as a _quid pro quo_ against rent. Being country-bred, he had
little difficulty in fitting into his new duties, and in envisaging the
future, felt that after Vernon's return, he would like nothing better
than to secure a land agency, live quietly in the country, and take up
country sports. Given a few congenial neighbours, and a library