d into thought. It wasn't difficult to conjecture the reason
for Terry's errand. She'd been no more anxious to meet him just at
present than he had been to meet her. She'd taken the day off in the
hope that by nightfall he would have departed.

Another solution occurred to him. "Did she ever mention to you a General
Braithwaite?"

Lady Dawn met his eyes with a hint of warning. Listeners were present.
"I believe she did," she admitted discouragingly.

"The only reason why I asked was that his name's in the morning papers.
She may have seen it before she started. If so, it might explain----"

"John will know." Lady Dawn turned to the footman. "Did Miss Beddow read
the papers, John, this morning before she left?"

"She did, my Lady. It was after she had read them that she ordered the
car."

"Then that's it." Tabs dismissed the subject as unworthy of further
discussing. "She went to Gloucester to hurry off a telegram of
congratulation. Braithwaite's had a stroke of luck."

"If that is all," Lady Dawn smiled mischievously, "I wonder that she
didn't come back in the car. A telegram can be dispatched in five
minutes."

From then on, the threat of Terry's return hung over them, urging them
to make the most of their respite. Everything that had started between
them was so new and uncertain. No time-limit had been set to Tabs'
visit; his original reason for coming to Dawn Castle was exhausted.
There was no sufficiently plausible excuse for prolonging his stay in
the village longer. A little absence, a little carelessness of
forgetting, a few new interests and who could say but that this sudden
need of each other, which had rushed them together with such compelling
impulse, might not subside as unaccountably as it had occurred. In both
their hearts this dread was present--this distrust of the permanency of
their emotions. If they parted, they might meet again to find the magic
irrecoverable.

After lunch they retired to the room in the turret. She chose her
favorite chair by the window and sat there sewing, with her work-basket
at her feet. He sat opposite, watching the busy occupation of her hands.
He noticed that many of the garments which she mended belonged to the
small boy whom he had seen in the rose-garden.

She looked up. "I always do everything for Eric."

It was later, when tea was being served, that the small boy himself
peered in on them. Tabs caught his jealous eyes peering round the
doorway. "Won't you