ght the
governess-cart to a standstill outside. Even Mrs. Selwyn had exerted
herself to come downstairs, and was waiting in the hall to greet the
wanderer back.

"It will be a great comfort to have you back, my dear," she said with
unwonted feeling in her voice, and quite suddenly Sara felt abundantly
rewarded for the many weary hours upstairs, trying to win Mrs. Selwyn's
interest to anything exterior to herself.

"You're looking thinner," was Selwyn's blunt comment, as Sara threw off
her hat and coat. "What have you been doing with yourself?"

She flushed a little.

"Oh, racketing about, I suppose. I've been living in a perfect whirl.
Never mind, Doctor Dick, you shall fatten me up now with your good
country food and your good country air. Good gracious!"--as he closed
a big thumb and finger around her slender wrist and shook his head
disparagingly--"Don't look so solemn! I was always one of the lean kine,
you know."

"I don't think that London has agreed with you," rumbled Selwyn
discontentedly. "Your pulse is as jerky as a primitive cinema film.
You'd better not be in such a hurry to run away from us again. Besides,
we can't do without you, my dear."

With a mental jolt Sara recollected the fact of her approaching
marriage. How on earth should she break it to these good friends of
hers, who counted so much on her remaining with them, that within three
months--the longest period Elisabeth would consent to wait--she would
be leaving them permanently? It was manifestly impossible to pour such
a douche of cold water into the midst of the joyful warmth of their
welcome; and she decided to wait, at least until the next day, before
acquainting them with the fact of her engagement.

When morning came, the same arguments held good in favour of a further
postponement, and, as the days slipped by, it became increasingly
difficult to introduce the subject.

Moreover, amid the change of environment and influence, Sara experienced
a certain almost inevitable reaction of feeling. It was not that she
actually regretted her engagement, but none the less she found herself
supersensitively conscious of it, and she chafed against the thought of
the congratulations and all the kindly, well-meant "fussation" which its
announcement would entail.

She told herself irritably that this was only because she had not yet
had time to get used to the idea of regarding herself as Tim's future
wife; that, later on, when she had grown mor