and Roger Trenby are about as unsuited to each other as any man and
woman could possibly be. In addition to which he has the temper of a
fiend when roused--and you'd be sure to rouse him! You know a dozen
men more suitable!"

"Do I? It seems to me I'm particularly destitute of men friends just
now, either 'suitable' or otherwise. They've been giving me the cold
shoulder lately with commendable frequency. So why not the M.F.H. and
his acres?"

Kitty detected the bitter, hurt note in her voice, and privately
congratulated herself on a letter she had posted only the previous
evening telling Peter that everything was obviously over between Nan
and Maryon Rooke, as the latter had failed to put in an appearance at
St. Wennys--and would he come down to Mallow Court? With Peter once
more at hand, she felt sure he would be able to charm Nan's bitterness
away and even prevent her, in some magical way of his own, from
committing such a rash blunder as marriage with Trenby could not fail
to be.

She had been feeling rather disturbed about Nan ever since they had
come to Mallow. The Nan she knew, wayward, tantalising, yet always
lovable, seemed to have disappeared, and instead here was this
embittered, moody Nan, very surely filled with some wild notion of
defying fate by marrying out of hand and so settling for ever the
disappointments of the past--and whatever chances of happiness there
might be waiting for her in the lap of destiny. Settling them in
favour of one most final and lasting disappointment of them all--of
that Kitty felt convinced.