seeing that Mavis
belonged to a class of life which he had been accustomed to serve, he
treated her with becoming respect. Mavis incorrectly argued from the
man's deference that it had been decided to secure her services: her
heart leapt, her colour heightened at her good fortune.

If a few moments of pleasure are worth purchasing at a cost of many
hours of crowded disappointment, it was as well that Mavis was ignorant
of the way in which her prospects had been prejudiced by the trend of
events at Melkbridge House since Mrs Devitt had replied to Miss Mee's
letter. To begin with, Mavis's visit had been within an ace of being
indefinitely postponed; it was owing to Harold's expressed wish that
the original appointment had been allowed to stand. The reason for this
indifference to Mavis's immediate future was that, the day after the
schoolmistress had written, Harold had been seriously indisposed. His
symptoms were so alarming that his doctor had insisted on having a
further opinion; this was obtained from a Bathminster physician, who
had confirmed the local medical man's diagnosis; he had also advised
Harold a month's rest on his back, this to be followed by a nine
months' residence abroad. As if this were not enough to interfere with
Mavis's visit, Montague Devitt had met young Sir Archibald Windebank,
the bachelor owner of Haycock. Abbey, when going to discharge his
duties as borough magistrate, the performance of which he believed
might ease his mind of the pain occasioned by his son's illness.

After he had told Windebank his bad news, and the latter had expressed
his genuine concern, Devitt had said:

"Do you remember Keeves--Colonel Keeves?"

"Of Melkbridge Court? Of course. Why?"

"I heard something of his daughter the other day."

"Little Mavis!"

"She's big Mavis now," remarked Devitt.

"Have you seen her?" asked Windebank eagerly.

"Not yet, but I may very soon."

"She promised to be an awfully pretty girl. Is she?"

"I haven't seen her. But if she comes down you might care to call."

"Thanks," replied Windebank. "When you see her, you might mention I
asked after her."

"I will."

"Although I don't suppose she'll remember me after all these years."

Devitt had left Windebank and gone about his business. When he came out
of the court house, and was about to get into his motor, Windebank
again approached him, but in such a manner that made Devitt wonder if
he had been hanging about on purpose t