"But I should love it so much," she said. "Here I could rest, and
forget all the things which worry me in this new life. Here I could
watch the sea come in. I could sit down on the beach there and listen
to the larks singing on the marshes. Oh! it would be such a rest--so
peaceful! Mr. Andrew, is it quite impossible?"

He played his part well enough, laughing at her good-humouredly.

"It is more than impossible," he said. "If you stayed here for any time
at all, your stepmother would come and fetch you back, and I should get
into terrible disgrace. Mr. De la Borne would probably turn me out of
my house," he added as an afterthought.

She sat down and looked out of the window in despair. The storm was
still raging. The skies were black, and the window-pane streaming with
rain-drops. She shivered a little.

"If I could help you in any other way," he continued, after a moment's
pause, "I should be very glad to try."

She turned upon him quickly.

"How can you help me, or any one," she demanded, "unless you can take
me away from these people? Listen! Until a few months ago I had
scarcely seen my stepmother. She fetched me away from the convent, took
me to Paris for some clothes, and since then I have done nothing but go
to parties and houses where the people seem all to have fine names, but
behave horribly. I know that I am rich. They told me that before I left
the convent, so that I might be a little prepared, but is that any
reason why every man, old and young, should say foolish things to me,
and pretend that they have fallen in love, when I know all the time
that it is my fortune they are thinking of. And my stepmother speaks of
marrying me as though I were a piece of merchandise, to be disposed of
to the highest bidder. I do not like her friends. I do not like the way
they live. I have never liked Major Forrest. Last night your lodger and
another man came to the Hall. They asked questions about Lord Ronald.
They asked questions and they were told lies. I am sure of it. It got
on my nerves. I thought I should shriek. Major Forrest said that it was
he who drove Lord Ronald into Lynn, thirty-five miles away, at six
o'clock in the morning. I am sure that he could not have driven the car
a hundred yards."

"Good God!" Andrew muttered.

"I am sure of it," Jeanne continued. "Two days before Lord Ronald
disappeared, he wanted the car to take us over to Sandringham, and he
could not find the chauffeur. It seems that he