. Selwyn had called on Mr. Trent."

Sara laughed outright.

"Dear Lavender Lady--we didn't. Neither of us would have dared to insult
Mr. Trent by doing anything so conventional." The black eyes flashed
back defiance at the hazel ones. "I got caught in a storm on the
Monk's Cliff, and Mr. Trent--much against his will, I'm
certain"--maliciously--"offered me shelter."

"Now that was kind of him. I'm sure Sara must have been most grateful to
you." And the kind old face smiled up into Trent's dark, bitter one so
simply and sincerely that it seemed as though, for the moment, some of
the bitterness melted away. Not even so confirmed a misanthrope as the
hermit of Far End could have entirely resisted the Lavender Lady, with
her serene aroma of an old-world courtesy and grace long since departed
from these hurrying twentieth-century days.

She moved away to the tea-table, leaving Trent and Sara standing
together in the bay of the window.

"So you are overcoming your distaste for visiting," said Sara a little
nervously. "I didn't expect to meet you here."

His glance held hers.

"You wished it," he answered gravely.

A sudden colour flamed up into the warm pallor of her skin.

"Are you suggesting I invited you to meet me here?" she responded,
willfully misinterpreting him. She shook her read regretfully. "You must
have misunderstood me. I should never have imposed such a strain on your
politeness."

His eyes glinted.

"Do you know," he said quietly, "that I should very much like to shake
you?"

"I'm glad," she answered heartily. "It's a devastating feeling! You made
me feel just the same the day I travelled with you. So now we're quits."

"Won't you--please--try to forget that day in the train?" he said
quickly. "I behaved like a bore. I'm afraid I've no real excuse to
offer, except that I'd been reminded of something that happened long
ago--and I wanted to be alone."

"To enjoy the memory in solitude?" hazarded Sara flippantly. She was
still nervous and talking rather at random, scarcely heeding what she
said.

A look of bitter irony crossed his face.

"Hardly that," he said shortly, and Sara knew that somehow she had again
inadvertently laid her hand upon an old hurt. She spoke with a sudden
change of voice.

"Then, as the train doesn't hold pleasant memories for either of us,
let's forget it," she suggested gently.

"Do you know what that implies?" he asked. "It implies that you are
willing to be frien