e roused himself and stood up.

X.

WITH a sigh of relief Susy drew the pins from her hat and threw herself
down on the lounge.

The ordeal she had dreaded was over, and Mr. and Mrs. Vanderlyn had
safely gone their several ways. Poor Ellie was not noted for prudence,
and when life smiled on her she was given to betraying her gratitude too
openly; but thanks to Susy's vigilance (and, no doubt, to Strefford's
tacit co-operation), the dreaded twenty-four hours were happily over.
Nelson Vanderlyn had departed without a shadow on his brow, and though
Ellie's, when she came down from bidding Nick good-bye, had seemed to
Susy less serene than usual, she became her normal self as soon as it
was discovered that the red morocco bag with her jewel-box was missing.
Before it had been discovered in the depths of the gondola they had
reached the station, and there was just time to thrust her into her
"sleeper," from which she was seen to wave an unperturbed farewell to
her friends.

"Well, my dear, we've been it through," Strefford remarked with a deep
breath as the St. Moritz express rolled away.

"Oh," Susy sighed in mute complicity; then, as if to cover her
self-betrayal: "Poor darling, she does so like what she likes!"

"Yes--even if it's a rotten bounder," Strefford agreed.

"A rotten bounder? Why, I thought--"

"That it was still young Davenant? Lord, no--not for the last six
months. Didn't she tell you--?"

Susy felt herself redden. "I didn't ask her--"

"Ask her? You mean you didn't let her!"

"I didn't let her. And I don't let you," Susy added sharply, as he
helped her into the gondola.

"Oh, all right: I daresay you're right. It simplifies things," Strefford
placidly acquiesced.

She made no answer, and in silence they glided homeward.

Now, in the quiet of her own room, Susy lay and pondered on the distance
she had travelled during the last year. Strefford had read her mind with
his usual penetration. It was true that there had been a time when
she would have thought it perfectly natural that Ellie should tell
her everything; that the name of young Davenant's successor should be
confided to her as a matter of course. Apparently even Ellie had been
obscurely aware of the change, for after a first attempt to force her
confidences on Susy she had contented herself with vague expressions of
gratitude, allusive smiles and sighs, and the pretty "surprise" of the
sapphire bangle slipped onto her friend's wri