redulity that to her too, as to other girls,
all this pain had come.

They came to a bridle-path which led downwards through a thicket of trees
to the weald and so descended upon Great Beeding. They rode through the
little town, past the inn where Thresk was staying and the iron gates of
a Park where, amidst elm-trees, the blackened ruins of a great house
gaped to the sky.

"Some day you will live there again," said Thresk, and Stella's lips
twitched with a smile of humour.

"I shall be very glad after to-day to leave the house I am living in,"
she said quietly, and the words struck him dumb. He had subtlety enough
to understand her. The rooms would mock her with memories of vain dreams.
Yet he kept silence. It was too late in any case to take back what he had
said; and even if she would listen to him marriage wouldn't be fair. He
would be hampered, and that, just at this time in his life, would mean
failure--failure for her no less than for him. They must be
prudent--prudent and methodical, and so the great prizes would be theirs.

A mile beyond, a mile of yellow lanes between high hedges, they came to
the village of Little Beeding, one big house and a few thatched cottages
clustered amongst roses and great trees on the bank of a small river.
Thither old Mr. Derrick and his wife and his daughter had gone after the
fire at Hinksey Park had completed the ruin which disastrous speculations
had begun; and at the gate of one of the cottages the riders stopped and
dismounted.

"I shall not see you again after to-day," said Stella. "Will you come in
for a moment?"

Thresk gave the horses to a passing labourer to hold and opened the gate.

"I shall be disturbing your people at their luncheon," he said.

"I don't want you to go in to them," said the girl. "I will say goodbye
to them for you."

Thresk followed her up the garden-path, wondering what it was that she
had still to say to him. She led him into a small room at the back of the
house, looking out upon the lawn. Then she stood in front of him.

"Will you kiss me once, please," she said simply, and she stood with her
arms hanging at her side, whilst he kissed her on the lips.

"Thank you," she said. "Now will you go?"

He left her standing in the little room and led the horses back to the
inn. That afternoon he took the train to London.

CHAPTER III

IN BOMBAY

It was not until a day late in January eight years afterwards that Thresk
saw the fac