"No matter, I 'll direct you."

As they entered the Ocean Drive through an archway of privet, Miss
Wellington indicated a road which dived among the hills and disappeared.

"Drive quite slowly," she said.

It was a beautiful road, dipping and rising, but hidden at all times by
hills, resplendent with black and yellow and purple gorse, or great
gray bowlders, so that impressions of Scotch moorlands alternated with
those of an Arizona desert. The tang of September was in the breeze;
from the moorlands which overlooked the jagged Brenton reefs came the
faint aroma of burning sedge; from the wet distant cliff a saline
exhalation was wafted. It was such a morning as one can see and feel
only on the island of Newport.

As an additional charm to Anne Wellington, there was the tone of time
about it all. From childhood she had absorbed all these impressions of
late Summer in Newport; they had grown, so to speak, into her life, had
become a part of her nature. She drew a deep breath and leaned forward.

"Stop here a moment, will you please."

They were at the bottom of a hollow with no sign of habitation about,
save the roof of a villa which perched upon a rocky eminence, half a
mile to one side.

"Will you get out and lift the radiator cover and pretend to be fixing
something, McCall? I want to talk to you."

Without a word, Jack left his seat, went to the tool box and was soon
viewing the internal economy of the car, simulating search for an
electrical hiatus with some fair degree of accuracy.

The girl bent forward, her cheek suffused but a humorous smile playing
about her face.

"McCall," she said, "I feel I should assure you at the outset that I am
quite aware of certain things."

Armitage glanced at her and then quickly lowered his eyes. She gazed
admiringly at his strong, clean face and the figure sharply defined by
the close-fitting livery.

"Your name is not McCall and I have not the slightest idea that you are
by profession a physical instructor, or a driver either."

Armitage unscrewed a wrench and then screwed the jaws back into their
place.

"We are what conditions make us, Miss Wellington," he said.

"Yes, that is true," she replied, "but tell me truthfully. Did you
seek employment here only because of my--of my interest in--I mean,
because of the note I wrote, or did you come because my note put you in
the way of obtaining a needed position?"

Armitage started to speak and then stopped sh