sane man to hazard such
assurances?

"Anna," he questioned her abruptly, "why are you so anxious for this
marriage?"

She stopped short to face him. "Why? But surely I've explained to
you--or rather I've hardly had to, you seemed so in sympathy with my
reasons!"

"I didn't know, then, who it was that Owen wanted to marry."

The words were out with a spring and he felt a clearer air in his brain.
But her logic hemmed him in.

"You knew yesterday; and you assured me then that you hadn't a word to
say----"

"Against Miss Viner?" The name, once uttered, sounded on and on in his
ears. "Of course not. But that doesn't necessarily imply that I think
her a good match for Owen."

Anna made no immediate answer. When she spoke it was to question: "Why
don't you think her a good match for Owen?"

"Well--Madame de Chantelle's reasons seem to me not quite as negligible
as you think."

"You mean the fact that she's been Mrs. Murrett's secretary, and that
the people who employed her before were called Hoke? For, as far as Owen
and I can make out, these are the gravest charges against her."

"Still, one can understand that the match is not what Madame de
Chantelle had dreamed of."

"Oh, perfectly--if that's all you mean." The lodge was in sight, and she
hastened her step. He strode on beside her in silence, but at the gate
she checked him with the question: "Is it really all you mean?"

"Of course," he heard himself declare.

"Oh, then I think I shall convince you--even if I can't, like Madame
de Chantelle, summon all the Everards to my aid!" She lifted to him
the look of happy laughter that sometimes brushed her with a gleam of
spring.

Darrow watched her hasten along the path between the dripping
chrysanthemums and enter the lodge. After she had gone in he paced up
and down outside in the drizzle, waiting to learn if she had any message
to send back to the house; and after the lapse of a few minutes she came
out again.

The child, she said, was badly, though not dangerously, hurt, and the
village doctor, who was already on hand, had asked that the surgeon,
already summoned from Francheuil, should be told to bring with him
certain needful appliances. Owen had started by motor to fetch the
surgeon, but there was still time to communicate with the latter by
telephone. The doctor furthermore begged for an immediate provision of
such bandages and disinfectants as Givre itself could furnish, and Anna
bade Darrow addre