he boys--my cousins, but that was all. And anyway he has not
been here long."

"Oh." Owen was still vaguely perplexed by her manner. "Well, if he's a
decent chap you must ask him over."

"Oh, I'm sure he wouldn't come." Toni spoke quickly. "He is not your
sort, Owen. I mean--I don't think he would care to come. Do you, Mrs.
Herrick?"

Thus appealed to, Eva gave her verdict with a show of hesitation.

"N-no, I hardly think he would." She turned to Owen. "I don't think I
would ask him, if I were you, Mr. Rose. I expect it would make him feel
a little--well, awkward."

"But----" Owen did not know what to make of it. "You see, if he is
sufficiently intimate with my wife to send her all these papers and
things, it looks rather odd if I take no notice of him, doesn't it? I
really think we must ask him over when Toni is herself again, eh, Toni?"

"I wouldn't, Mr. Rose." Eva threw a deep earnestness into her melodious
Irish voice. "Really--it's not my business, of course, but if I were you
I'd not bother about the matter."

She saw the look of uneasiness in Owen's eyes, and knew she had said
enough.

"Is it really five o'clock!" She jumped up in pretended dismay. "And I
promised Jim faithfully I'd be back by half-past four. He gets fidgety
when I'm out of his sight for long--thinks I'm getting into mischief, I
suppose."

She laughed rather hardly, and Owen felt an inner repulsion to the woman
who could thus misconstrue her husband's consideration. He watched her
bid Toni an effusive farewell and then escorted her downstairs, and
stood talking to her for a few moments at the hall door.

Somehow he had never liked her so little as on this afternoon; and
although he admitted that she was a pretty woman in her way, he told
himself that her face was curiously unattractive.

She looked better now than on her first arrival in the neighbourhood,
less haggard, a little plumper, but as he compared her dulled and faded
beauty with Toni's youthful bloom he wondered, not for the first time,
if her companionship were altogether innocuous.

He was still puzzling over the question when he re-entered Toni's room;
and his first words showed her what was in his mind.

"Rather bad taste--that allusion to her husband's anxiety. Don't you
think so, Toni? After all, he might well be uneasy about a woman who has
once got into such serious mischief as she has done."

"Why? It's not likely to happen again." Toni, poring over _Punch_, sp