ly along, apparently rather preoccupied. Sometimes
she looked out, with her dark, earnest and yet wistful eyes, at the
great plain of water quivering in the sunshine: she paid little heed to
the people who went by. When at length she did see Harry Trelyon, she
was quite near him, and she had just time to glance for a moment at his
companion. The next moment--he could not tell how it all happened--she
passed him with a slight bow of recognition, courteous enough, but
nothing more. There was no especial look of friendliness in her eyes.

He stood there rather bewildered.

"That is about as good as the cut direct, Harry," his cousin said. "Come
along--don't stand there."

"Oh, but there's some mistake, Jue," he said.

"A girl never does a thing of that sort by mistake. Either she is vexed
with you for walking with me--and that is improbable, for I doubt
whether she saw me--or she thinks the ardor of your acquaintance should
be moderated; and there I should agree with her. You don't seem so vexed
as one might have expected, Harry."

"Vexed!" he said. "Why, can't you tell by that girl's face that she
could do nothing capricious or unkind? Of course she has a reason; and I
will find it out."

CHAPTER XXV.

NOT THE LAST WORD.

As soon as he could decently leave his cousin at home, he did; and then
he walked hastily down to the house in which Mrs. Rosewarne had taken
rooms. Miss Rosewarne was not at home, the small maid-servant said. Was
Mrs. Rosewarne? Yes; so he would see her.

He went up stairs, never thinking how his deep trouble about so
insignificant an incident would strike a third person.

"Mrs. Rosewarne," he said right out, "I want you to tell me if Wenna
wishes our acquaintance to end. Has she been speaking to you? Just now
she passed me in the street as if she did not wish to see me again."

"Probably," said Mrs. Rosewarne, amused as well as surprised by the
young man's impetuosity, "she did not see you then. Wenna often passes
people so. Most likely she was thinking about other things, for she had
another letter from Jamaica just before she went out."

"Oh, she has had another letter from Jamaica this morning?" Trelyon
said, with an angry light appearing in his eyes. "That is it, is it?"

"I don't understand you," Mrs. Rosewarne was saying, when both of them
heard Wenna enter below.

"Mrs. Rosewarne," he said with a sudden entreaty in his voice, "would
you mind letting me see Wenna alone fo