up at her with a smile. She blushed.

"I have no intention of keeping a motor," he said. Rachel said nothing.

"Are you very angry with me?" Rendel said.

"I am not sure," she answered. "I think I am."

"You mustn't be--after saving my life, too, this morning, in the boat."

"Saving your life?" said Rachel, surprised.

"Yes," Rendel said. "By not steering me into any of the things we met on
the Thames."

"Oh!" said Rachel, smiling, "I am afraid even that was more your doing
than mine, as you kept calling out to me which string to pull."

"Perhaps. But the extraordinary thing was that when you were told you
did pull it," said Rendel.

"Oh, any one can do that," replied Rachel.

"I beg your pardon, it is not so simple," Rendel answered, thinking to
himself, though he had the good sense at that moment not to formulate
it, what an adorable quality it would be in a wife that she should
always pull exactly the string she was told to pull.

"I've been asking Sir William if I may come and speak to him...." he
said in a lower tone. "He said I might." Rachel was silent. "You don't
mind, do you?" he said, looking at her anxiously.

"I--I--don't know," Rachel said. "I feel as if I were not sure about
anything--you have done it all so quickly--I can't realise----"

"Yes," he said penitently, "I have done it all very quickly, I know, but
I won't hurry you to give me any answer. My chief's going away
to-morrow for ten days, and I am afraid I must go too, but may I come as
soon as I am back again?"

"Yes," said Rachel shyly.

"And perhaps by that time," he said, "you will know the answer. Do you
think you will?" Rachel looked at him as her hand lay in his.

"Yes, by that time I shall know," she said.

As Rendel went out a few minutes later he was dimly conscious of meeting
an agitated little figure which hurried past him into the room. Miss
Judd was a lady who contrived to reduce as many of her fellow-creatures
to a state of mild exasperation during the day as any female enthusiast
in London, by her constant haste to overtake her manifold duties towards
the human race. Those duties were still further complicated by the fact
that she had a special gift for forgetting more things in one afternoon
than most people are capable of remembering in a week.

"My dear Jane, how do you do?" said Lady Gore. "We have not seen you for
an age."

"No, Cousin Elinor, no," said Miss Judd, who always spoke in little
gasps as if she