dropped from nowhere. Davenant drew back; his face fell. He looked like
a big, sensitive dog hurt by a rebuff. It was Mrs. Fane who came to the
rescue.

"Peter's come to see Cousin Henry. They've got business to talk over.
And mother wants to know if you and Colonel Ashley won't come to dinner
to-morrow evening. That's my errand. Just ourselves, you know. It'll be
very quiet."

Olivia recovered somewhat from the agitation of the previous half-hour
as well as from the movement of sudden, inexplicable anger which
Ashley's reception of Davenant had produced in her. Even so she could
speak but coldly, and, as it were, from a long way off.

"You'll go," she said, turning to Ashley, "and I'll come if I can leave
papa. I'll run up flow and see how he is and take Mr. Davenant with me."




XIV


There was dignity in the way in which Davenant both withdrew and stood
his ground. He was near the Corinthian portico of the house as Olivia
approached him. Leaning on his stick, he looked loweringly back at
Ashley, who talked to Drusilla without noticing him further. Olivia
guessed that in Davenant's heart there was envy tinged with resentment,
antipathy, not tempered by a certain unwilling admiration. She wondered
what it was that made the difference between the two men, that gave