that your mother really dislikes me, after all?"

"Oh dear no! Not in the least. I've heard her say all sorts of nice
things about you."

"Really? Then I think I'll stay here. I didn't want to be a nuisance,
you know--always in the way."

"You're not in the way," answered Clare.

Mrs. Bowring came back with her shawl, and the rest of the evening
passed off as usual. Later, when she was alone, the young girl
remembered all the conversation, and she saw that it had been in her
power to make Johnstone leave Amalfi. While she was wondering why she
had not done so, since she hated him for what she knew of him, she fell
asleep, and the question remained unanswered. In the morning she told
the substance of it all to her mother, and ended by telling her that
Johnstone's father was a brewer.

"Of course," answered Mrs. Bowring absently. "I know that." Then she
realised what she had said, and glanced at Clare with an odd, scared
look.

Clare uttered an exclamation of surprise.

"Mother! Why, then--you knew all about him! Why didn't you tell me?"

A long silence followed, during which Mrs. Bowring sat with her face
turned from her daughter. Then she raised her hand and passed it slowly
over her forehead, as though trying to collect her thoughts.

"One comes across very strange things in life, my dear," she said at
last. "I am not sure that we had not better go away, after all. I'll
think about it."

Beyond this Clare could get no information, nor any explanation of the
fact that Mrs. Bowring should have known something about Brook
Johnstone's father. The girl made a guess, of course. The elder
Johnstone must be a relation of her mother's first husband; though,
considering that Mrs. Bowring had never seen Brook before now, and that
the latter had never told her anything about his father, it was hard to
see how she could be so sure of the fact. Possibly, Brook strongly
resembled his father's family. That, indeed, was the only admissible
theory. But all that Clare knew and could put together into reasonable
shape could not explain why her mother so much disliked leaving her
alone with the man, even for five minutes.

In this, however, Mrs. Bowring changed suddenly, after the first evening
when she had left them on the terrace. She either took a totally
different view of the situation, or else she was ashamed of seeming to
watch them all the time, and the consequence was that during the next
three or four days they were