in her voice. "But did he say anything then?"

"Yes, after the bathe," Leonetta rejoined, dropping her voice to a
whisper, "he asked me whether I knew that strange young man."

"Well?" Vanessa demanded, still retaining the note of disappointed
expectancy in her voice.

"That's all," Leonetta replied, conscious that Vanessa had ruined the
effect of her little narrative.

For some moments Vanessa silently continued her toilet; then when she
was quite ready to go downstairs, she sat down and waited for her
friend.

"Are you fond of Denis?" she enquired at last.

"He's not bad," replied Leonetta carelessly. "What do you think he
thinks of me?"

Vanessa's keen Jewish features became inscrutable in a moment, and her
eyes turned as it were indifferently to the window. A week ago she might
have replied that Denis was obviously "smitten"; but four days of almost
total neglect and really formidable rivalry are hard to forgive, even
when one flatters oneself that one is "above" such treatment.

"He certainly seems to be amused by you," she said cryptically.

Leonetta did not like this way of putting it, and the conversation
therefore ceased to interest her. "Are you coming?" she said, and made
towards the door.

In another room Cleopatra had been listening to Agatha Fearwell's
account of what had occurred at Stonechurch that morning, and the facts
she culled from the girl's guileless and unsuspecting statement had not
reassured her.

"Cleo, what on earth's the matter?" Agatha cried suddenly.

"Why--what?" Cleopatra rejoined, bracing herself, but turning a drawn
and haggard face, that had just grown unusually pale, to her friend.

"My dear, aren't you well?"

"Quite," replied Cleopatra, parting her lips in a faint, hardly
convincing smile.

"But you can't be,--sit down, do!" said Agatha.

Cleopatra made a stupendous effort to recover herself, which was
singularly reminiscent of her undefeated mother. "The heat, I suppose,"
she observed.

But Agatha was not satisfied. She was too intelligent to be silenced by
such an obvious feminine defence. She could not help drawing her own
conclusions, although Cleopatra's proud reserve forbade her asking any
further questions.

Denis stayed to lunch at "The Fastness" that day, and in the afternoon
there was tennis. The beautiful weather still continuing, Mrs. Delarayne
was loath to join Sir Joseph on his interminable excursions by car. He
had her sister with him, and th