ren't the
liveliest occasions in the world for the looker-on. I guess I'd feel
pretty `_left_,' when you drove off from the gates, and I found myself
all by my lonesome with the two old girls. ... I've wired to Liverpool
about berths, and may have to start off at a day's notice, so we've got
to make the most of the time. Aunt Soph don't care! She's polite, of
course, but right at the back of her mind I can see she's planning to
clean out my room, and thinking how good it will be to have the mats
laid aside, and the shroudings over the tables! If it wasn't for you,
Moss Rose, I should feel I'd done a fool-trick coming over at all! When
all's said and done it amounts to nothing but disappointment and heart-
break."

"You mean," began Elma, "you mean--" and then suddenly paused. Why
should Cornelia's heart break? Disappointment and disillusion would be
natural enough in one who had experienced both coldness and deception
within the last few weeks, but heart-break was too strong a term. To
Elma, with her mind full to overflowing of that beloved Geoffrey, it
seemed as if nothing but love could count so seriously in life. Her
thoughts flew to Guest, recalling all she had heard of his knight-
errantry in London; of the long hours which the two had spent alone
together; and later on, of the daily meetings in the Park, planned for
her own benefit, but none the less opportunities for fuller knowledge.
She fixed her blue eyes on Cornelia's face, and asked a sudden
question--

"Does Captain Guest know that you are going?"

"How should he?" returned Cornelia, lightly. Eyes and lips were
unflinching, but all the will in the world could not keep the blood from
her cheeks. "He's visiting somewhere at the other end of the country,
with old friends who belong to his own world, and feel the same way
about the same things. Let him stay and be happy! I don't want him to
come worrying down here for the fun of saying good-bye. Guess he's had
trouble enough about my affairs. Mind now, Elma, you are not to tell
him! This is my affair, and I won't have you interfere."

Elma meekly disavowed any intention of communicating with Captain Guest,
but like many other meek people she harboured a quiet reservation which
annulled the promise. She would not write, but--Geoffrey could!
Geoffrey _should_! That flame in Cornelia's cheek satisfied her that
the girl's interest was deeper than she would admit, and if Guest
returned the fe