think"--smiling--"that that's the type of man who's going to give in
over winning the woman he wants? . . . Should I, if things were
different--if I were free?"

Kitty laughed reluctantly.

"You? No. But you're not Maryon Rooke. He could never be the kind of
lover you would be, my Peter. With him, his art counts first of
anything in the wide world. And that's why I don't think he'll come to
St. Wennys. He's in love with Nan--as far as his type can be in
love--but he's not going to tie himself up with her. So he'll keep
away."

She paused, then went on urgently:

"Peter dear, we shall all of us hate it so if you don't come down to
Cornwall with us this year. Look, if Rooke doesn't show up down there,
so that we know he's only philandering with Nan and has no real
intention of marrying her, will you come then?"

He still hesitated. And all at once Kitty saw the other side of the
picture--Peter's side. She wanted him at Mallow--they all wanted him.
But she had not thought of the matter from his point of view. Now that
she knew he cared for Nan she recognised that it would be a bitterly
hard thing for him to be under the same roof with the woman he loved,
yet from whom he was barred by every law of God and man, and who, as
far as Kitty knew, regarded him solely in the light of a friend. Even
if Nan were growing to care for Peter--the bare possibility flashed
through Kitty's mind only to be instantly dismissed--even so, it would
serve only to complicate matters still further.