Rivermead for Easter? Because if so, I do beg you won't tell everybody
we are engaged. It is quite an informal arrangement, and perhaps,
considering all the circumstances, the less said about it the better."

She stopped and kissed Vera's grave face, laughed again as though she
could not help it, and flitted like a butterfly from the room.




CHAPTER II

HIS INTENTIONS


"Where is Doris?" asked Phil Abingdon, looking round upon the guests
assembled in his drawing-room at Rivermead. "We are all waiting for
her."

"I think we had better go in without her," said his wife, with her
nervous smile. "She arranged to motor down with Mrs. Lockyard and her
party this afternoon. Possibly they have persuaded her to dine with
them."

"She would never do that surely," said Phil, with an involuntary glance
at Vivian Caryl who had just entered.

"If you are talking about my _fiancé_, I think it more than probable
that she would," the latter remarked. "Mrs. Lockyard's place is just
across the river, I understand? Shall I punt over and fetch Doris?"