lances. He watched the cursed boy, as he had
labelled him, slip over to her, lean across the piano and talk eagerly.
He went nearer and caught, "the car in half an hour," and "not a word
to a soul." After which, with jealousy gnawing at his vitals, he saw
Harry Oldershaw moon about for a few minutes and then make a fishlike
dart out of the room. He had been prepared to find Joan amorously
surrounded by the men of the party but not on terms of sentimental
intimacy with a smooth-faced lad. In town she had shown preference for
sophistication. He went across to the piano and waited impatiently for
Joan to finish the piece which somehow fitted into his mood. "Come
out," he said, then, "I want to speak to you."

But Joan let her fingers wander into a waltz and raised her eyebrows.
"Do I look so much like Alice that you can order me about?" she asked.

He turned on his heel with the look of a dog at which a stone had been
flung by a friend, and disappeared.

Two minutes later there was a light touch on his arm, and Joan stood at
his side on the veranda. "Well, Gilbert," she said, "it's good to see
you again."

"So good that I might be a man touting for an encyclopedia," he
answered angrily.

She sat upon the rough stone wall and crossed her little feet. Her new
frock was white and soft and very perfectly simple. It demanded the
young body of a nymph,--and was satisfied. The magic of the moon was on
her. She might have been Spring resting after a dancing day.

"If you were," she said, taking a delight in unspoiling this immaculate
man, "I'm afraid you'd never get an order from me. Of all things the
encyclopedia must be accompanied by a winning smile and irresistible
manners. I suppose you've done lots of amusing things since I saw you
last."

He went nearer so that her knees almost touched him. "No," he said.
"Only one, and that was far from amusing. It has marked me like a blow.
I've been waiting for you. Where have you been, and why haven't you
taken the trouble to write me a single letter?"

"I've been ill," she said. "Yes, I have. Quite ill. I deliberately set
out to hurt myself and succeeded. It was an experiment that I sha'n't
repeat. I don't regret it. It taught me something that I shall never
forget. Never too young to learn, eh? Isn't it lovely here? Just smell
the sea, and look at those lights bobbing up and down out there. I
never feel any interest in ships in the daytime, but at night, when
they lie at anc