ael
would care twopence! He's an artist, I know. He can't help that, but
he's a man first. And he's a man who knows how to love. Promise me
one thing," she went on insistently. "Promise that you'll do nothing
definite--yet. Not, at least, without consulting me."

Magda hesitated.

"Very well. I'll do nothing without--telling you--first."

That was the utmost concession she would make, and with that her
godmother had to be content.

The same evening a letter in Lady Arabella's spirited, angular
handwriting sped on its way to Paris.

"If you're not absolutely determined to ruin both your own and Magda's
lives, my dear Michael, put your pride and your ridiculous principles
in your pocket and come back to England. I don't happen to be a
grandmother, but I'm quite old enough for the job, so you might pay my
advice due respect by taking it."

"I thought I was shelved altogether."

Thus Dan Storran, rather crossly, when, a day or two later, he met
Gillian by appointment for lunch at their favourite little restaurant in
Soho. It was the first time she had been able to fix up a meeting with
him since Magda's return, as naturally his customary visits to Friars'
Holm were out of the question now.

"Well, you expected my time to be pretty well occupied the first week or
two after Magda came back, didn't you?" countered Gillian.

She smiled as she spoke and proceeded leisurely to draw off her gloves,
while Storran signalled to a waiter.

She was really very glad to see him again. There was something so solid
and dependable about him, and she felt it would be very comforting to
confide in him her anxieties concerning Magda. Not that she anticipated
he would have any particular compassion to bestow upon the latter.
But she was femininely aware that inasmuch as Magda's affairs were
disturbing her peace of mind, he would listen to them with sympathetic
attention and probably, out of the depths of his man's consciousness,
produce some quite sound and serviceable advice.

Being a wise woman, however, she did not launch out into immediate
explanation, but waited for him to work off his own individual grumble
at not having seen her recently, trusting to the perfectly cooked little
lunch to exercise a tranquillising effect.

It was not until they had reached the cigarette and coffee stage of the
proceedings that she allowed a small, well-considered sigh to escape her
and drift away into the silence that had fallen betwee