orm was beginning to subside a little before they reached
Redlands, though the rain still fell heavily. In the intervals between
the lightning it was pitch dark. They had no lantern, but Nick was
undismayed. He walked as lightly and surely as a cat, and Muriel
had no choice but to trust herself unreservedly to his guidance. She
marvelled afterwards at the complete trust with which that night he
had managed to inspire her, but at the time she never questioned it.

Yet when the lights of Redlands shone at last through the gloom, she
breathed a sigh of relief. Instantly Nick spoke.

"Well done!", he said briefly. "You are your father's daughter still."

She knew that she flushed in the darkness, and was glad that he could
not see her face.

"You must go and get dry, first of all," he went on. "I told them to
light a fire somewhere. And you are to have some coffee too. Mind, I
say it."

To this she responded with some spirit. "I will if you will."

"I must go straight to Olga," he said. "I promised I would."

"Not in your wet things!" Muriel exclaimed. "No, Nick! Listen! I am
not wet, not as you are. Let me go to Olga first. You can send me some
coffee in her room if you like. But you must go at once and change.
Promise you will, Nick!"

She spoke urgently. For some reason the occasion seemed to demand it.

Nick was silent for a little, as if considering. Then as they finally
reached the porch he spoke in a tone she did not altogether fathom.

"I say, you are not going to shut me out, you know."

She looked up in astonishment. "Of course not. I never dreamt of such
a thing."

"All right," he said, and this time she knew he spoke with relief. "I
will do as you like then."

A moment more, and he opened the door, standing aside for her to pass.
She entered quickly, glad to be in shelter, and paused to slip off her
streaming waterproof. He took it from her, passing his hand over her
sleeve.

"You are sure you are not wet through?"

"Quite sure," she told him. "Take me straight up, won't you?"

"Yes. Come this way."

He preceded her up the wide stairs where he might have walked beside
her, not pausing for an instant till he stood at Olga's door.

"Go straight in," he said then. "She is expecting you. Tell her, if
she wants to know, that I am coming directly."

He passed on swiftly with the words, and disappeared into a room close
by.

Very softly Muriel turned the door-handle and entered. Olga's voice
g