s," agreed Penelope. "It really was angelic of Roger to spare you
at a moment's notice."

Nan gave a grim little smile.

"You dear innocent! Roger--didn't know--I was coming."

"What!"

"No, I just thought I'd come . . . and he--they were all away . . . and
I came! I left a note behind, telling him I was going to stay with
you. So he won't be anxious!"

"Roger didn't know you were coming!" repeated Penelope. "Nan"--a
sudden light illuminating the dark places--"have you had a quarrel?"

"Yes"--shortly. "A sort of quarrel."

"And you came straight off here? . . . Oh, Nan, what a fool's trick!
He will be furious!"

Once or twice Penelope had caught a glimpse of that hot-headed temper
which lay hidden beneath Roger's somewhat blunt exterior.

"Lady Gertrude will be furious!" murmured Nan reminiscently.

"I think she'll have the right to be," answered Penelope, with quiet
rebuke in her tones. "It really was abominable of you to run away like
that."

Nan shrugged her shoulders, and Ralph looked across at her, smiling
broadly.

"You're a very exasperating young person, Nan," he said. "If you were
going to be my wife, I believe I should beat you."

"Well, that would at least break the monotony of things," she retorted.
But her lips set themselves in a straight, hard, line at the
remembrance of Roger's stormy threat: "I might even do that."

"Is it monotony you're suffering from?" asked Ralph quickly.

She nodded.

"I'm fed up with the country and its green fields--never anything but
green fields! They're so eternally, _damnably_ green!"

"Oh, Nan! And the scenery in Cornwall is perfectly lovely!" protested
Penelope feebly.

"Man cannot live by bread alone, Penny--nor scenery either. I just
yearned for London. So I came."

The next morning, much to Nan's surprise, brought neither letter nor
telegram from Roger.

"I quite expected a wire: 'Return at once. All will be forgiven,'" she
said frivolously, as lunch time came and still no message.

"Perhaps he isn't prepared to forgive you," suggested Ralph.

Nan stared at him without answering, her eyes dilating curiously. She
had never even dreamed of such a possibility, and a sudden wild hope
flamed up within her.

"It's rather a knock to a man's pride, you know, if the girl he's
engaged to does a bolt the moment his back's turned," pursued Ralph.

"It was madness!" said Penelope with the calmness of despair.

Nan remained silent. Neith