s quarrel with Roger, her
sudden rush up to town and unexpected meeting with Peter at Maryon's
studio, and finally the distraught condition in which she had
discovered her last night after Peter had gone.

"Oh, Penny! How dreadful! How dreadful it all is!" exclaimed Kitty
pitifully, when the other had finished. "I knew that Peter cared a
long time ago. But not Nan! . . . Though I remember once, at Mallow,
wondering the tiniest bit if she were losing her heart to him."

"Well, she's done it. If you'd seen them last night, after they'd
parted, you'd have had no doubts. They were both absolutely broken up."

Kitty moved restlessly.

"And I suppose it's really my fault," she said unhappily. "I brought
them together in the first instance. Penny, I was a fool. But I was
so afraid--so afraid of Nan with Maryon. He might have made her do
anything! He could have twisted her round his little finger at the
time if he'd wanted to. Thank goodness he'd the decency not to
try--that."

Penelope regarded her with an odd expression.

"Maryon's still in love with Nan," she observed quietly, "I saw that at
the studio."

Kitty laughed a trifle harshly.

"Nan must be 'Maryon-proof' now, anyway," she asserted.

Penelope remained silent, her eyes brooding and reflective. That odd,
magician's charm which Rooke so indubitably possessed might prove
difficult for any woman to resist--doubly difficult for a woman whose
entire happiness in life had fallen in ruins.

The entrance of the maid with a telegram gave her the chance to evade
answering. She tore open the envelope and perused the wire with a
puzzled frown on her face. Then she read it aloud for Kitty's benefit,
still with the same rather bewildered expression.

"_Is Nan with you? Reply Trenby, Century Club, Exeter._"

"I don't understand it," she said doubtfully.

"_I_ do!"

She and Kitty both looked up at the sound of the mocking, contemptuous
voice, Nan was standing, fully dressed, on the threshold of the room.

"Nan!" Penelope almost gasped. "I thought you were still asleep!"

Nan glanced at her curiously.

"I've not been asleep--all night," she said evenly. "I asked your maid
for a cup of tea some time ago. How d'you do, Kitty?"

She kissed the latter perfunctorily, her thoughts evidently
preoccupied. She was very pale and heavy violet shadows lay beneath
her eyes. To Penelope it seemed as though she had become immensely
frailer and more f