I have."

"You met her looking for me!"

"No, not that."

"Then you must have been to Hillard House."

"Yes. I went there to talk with Mrs. MacDonald about you."

To save her life, Aline could not have kept down her agonizing blush.
Tears started to her eyes. Though she had been half prepared for this
blow, it fell upon her with an almost mortal shock. Ostentatiously,
Somerled was keeping his eyes off her face; and that was worse than if
he had stared straight into her eyes. Her terrible blush must have
touched the consciousness of a blind man. It called Basil's fascinated
attention from the girl; and so stricken did his sister look that he
would have cried out to ask what was the matter had she not sealed his
lips with a glance of desperate command.

There was no longer a gram of doubt. Somerled knew that Mrs. West had
lied about the telegram, and everything was changed between them
forever. For a moment Aline told herself that there was no hope, there
could not possibly be any; and yet, if he cared for her, would he not
forgive? Was there no way of saving the situation, and turning the
inevitable change into gain instead of loss? She took a quick and
courageous resolution, as a timid woman may when told that her life
depends upon a dangerous operation, to be performed instantly or not at
all.

"Mr. Somerled," she said, "can I speak to you--just you and me alone for
a few minutes?" As she made her plea, she rose from the rustic seat
where she had been sitting by her brother's side and opposite Barrie.

"Of course, with pleasure." Somerled rose too, stiff and alert as a
soldier on duty. She hated this stiffness, this alertness. It showed her
that he was sensitively dreading the scene to come, and hiding
reluctance behind a hard, bright shield.

"Mrs. West," Barrie spoke out impulsively, "if you don't want me to go
in the car, I won't."

"Of course I want you to go, silly child." Aline tried to withdraw
sharpness from her voice, but it was there, like the sting of a wasp in
a wound. "Even if I didn't think it wise for some reasons, it isn't my
car, you know, but Mr. Somerled's, and he has a perfect right to invite
any guests he likes. Don't imagine that I'm going to talk to him about
_you_. It's something quite different I have to say."

Barrie was snubbed into instant silence; but as Aline and Somerled
walked away together they heard her appeal confidentially to Basil, in a
tone of passionate interest: "Wh