.

"Helen, you're different now."

"And you like me less."

"I always love you."

She looked at him and smiled, and very slowly shook her head.

"Oh, no," she said pleasantly. "Oh, no, George."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Perhaps it's a riddle. You can think about it."

"Ah--you--you make me want to shake you!" He gripped her shoulders and
saw her firm lips loosened, a pale colour in her cheeks, but something
in her look forced him to let her go.

"I can't hurt you," he said.

She smiled again, in a queer way, he thought, but she was always queer:
she looked as if she knew a joke she would not tell him, and, in
revenge, he had a quick impulse to remind her of his rights.

"Next week," he said, and saw the pretty colour fading.

No one could save the captive princess now. Sunday came and Rupert went;
Monday came and Mildred Caniper spoke to Helen; Tuesday was Helen's
birthday: she was twenty-one. No one could save her now. On Wednesday
she was to meet George in the town.

She had asked Lily to stay with Mildred Caniper.

"I have some shopping to do," she said, and though her words were true,
she frowned at them.

Lily came, and her skirts were blown about as she ran up the track.

"It's a bitter wind," she said. "We've had a bad winter, and we're going
to have a wicked spring."

"I think we are," Helen said as she fastened on her hat.

"You'll be fighting the wind all the way into town. Need you go today?"

"I'm afraid I must," Helen said gravely.

"Well, perhaps the change will do you good," Lily said, and Helen smiled
at her reflection in the mirror. "Don't hurry back."

The smile stayed on Helen's lips, and it was frozen there when, having
forced her way against a wind that had no pity and no scorn, she did her
shopping methodically and met George Halkett at the appointed place.

"You've come!" he said, and seized her hand. "You're late."

"I had to do some shopping," she said, putting back a blown strand of
hair.

"You're tired. You should have let me drive you down." In the shadows of
the doorway, his eyes were quick on every part of her. "I wish I'd made
you. And you're late. Shall we--hadn't we better go upstairs?"

"There's nothing to wait for, is there?"

Their footsteps made a loud noise on the stairs, and in a few minutes
Helen found herself on them again. George had her by the arm, but he
loosed her when she put the ring into his hand.

"Helen--" He checked himself, accept