till he
reached the outside wall of The Trellis House.

There he hesitated for a few moments, but even while he was hesitating he
knew that he would go in. Before he could turn the handle the door in the
garden wall was opened by Enid Crofton herself. Radmore was surprised to
see that she was dressed in a black dress, with the orthodox plain linen
collar and cuffs of widowhood. It altered her strangely.

He was at once disappointed and a little relieved also, to find Jack
Tosswill in the garden with her. But soon the three went indoors, and
then, as had often been Mrs. Crofton's experience with admirers in the
past, each man tried to sit the other out.

At last the hostess had to say playfully:--"I'm afraid I must turn you
out now, for I'm expecting my sister-in-law, Miss Crofton."

And then they both, together, took their departure; Radmore feeling that
he had wasted an hour which might have been so very much more profitably
spent in going to see some of his old friends among the cottagers. As to
Jack Tosswill, he felt perplexed, and yes, considerably put out and
annoyed. He had been a good deal taken aback to see how close was the
acquaintance between Mrs. Crofton and Godfrey Radmore.

CHAPTER XIII

There is nothing like a meal, especially a good meal, for inducing
between two people an agreeable sense of intimacy. When Enid Crofton and
her elderly sister-in-law passed from the dining-room of The Trellis
House into the gay-looking little sitting-room, with its old-fashioned,
brightly coloured chintz furnishings, and quaint reproductions of
eighteenth-century prints, the two ladies were far more at ease the one
with the other than before luncheon.

Enid, in the plain black woollen gown, with its white linen collar and
cuffs, which she had discarded almost at once after her husband's
funeral, felt that she was producing a pleasant impression. As they sat
down, one on each side of the cheerful little wood fire, and began
sipping the excellent coffee which the mistress of the house had already
taught her very plain cook to make as it should be made, she suddenly
exclaimed:--

"I do want to thank you again for the money you sent me when poor Cecil
died! It was most awfully good of you, and very useful, too, for the
insurance people did not pay me for nearly a month."

These words gave her visitor an opening for which she had waited during
the last hour: "I'm glad my present was so opportune," said Miss C