police
on."

"And what is that to me?"

Another pause, during which she looked down. Then Carrie raised her eyes
again, and looked at him steadily.

"Oh, well, you know best."

Dudley turned away, muttering something under his breath. But the next
moment he faced her again.

"And you are waiting to take my answer back?"

"Mrs. Higgs said there would be no answer."

"Then what are you waiting for?"

"To see whether there is one or not."

"And you're going straight back with it to your granny, whatever it is?"
asked Dudley, with the same sharp tone of cross-examination.

"No. I am not going back to her. But I shall give the message to some
one who is."

There was another pause, longer than any of the previous ones. Then
Dudley said, shortly:

"You need not wait here any longer. I am going to see her myself."

Carrie had got upon her feet in the automatic manner she had maintained
throughout the interview.

"Going to the wharf, are you?" she said, with the first sign of human
interest she had shown. "Oh, very well."

There was something noticeable in her tone, something which made Max
suspicious and anxious on his friend's account. He came round the table
with rapid steps, touched Dudley's shoulder, and said, in a low voice:

"I'll go with you!"

At the sound of his voice Carrie started violently, and looked up at
Max, staring with eyes full of wonder and something very like delight.
The rigidity with which she had held herself, the automatic manner, the
hard, off-hand tone, all disappeared at once; and it was a new, a
transformed Carrie, the fascinating, wayward, irresistible girl he had
remembered, who gave him a smile and a nod, as she said, in a voice full
of the old charm he remembered:

"You! Is it you?" Then, breathlessly, with a change to anxiety in her
voice: "And are you going, too?"

"Yes. I'm going with my friend," said Max, as he came forward and held
out a hand, into which she put hers very shyly; "from what I remember of
my visit to your place, I think two visitors are better than one."

"I don't know whether granny will think so," said Carrie, still in the
same altered voice.

She was shy, modest, charming. All her femininity had returned, and both
the young men felt the influence of the change.

Dudley, who had instinctively stepped back to make way for his friend,
was watching them both with surprise and uneasiness.

"We must risk Mrs. Higgs's displeasure," said Max, dryly,