out, came and bowed Hewson away.

He hastened to that corner of the room where Miss Hernshaw was waiting,
and if he had been suddenly confronted with his apparition he could not
have experienced a deeper and stranger satisfaction than he felt as the
girl lifted up her innocent fierce face upon him.

It brought back that whole day at St. Johnswort, of which she, with his
vision, formed the supreme interest and equally the mystery; and it went
warmly to his heart to have her peremptorily abolish all banalities by
saying, "I was wondering if they were going to give me you, as soon as
you came in."

She put her slim hand on his arm as she spoke, and he thought she must
have felt him quiver at her touch. "Then you were not afraid they were
going to give you me?" he bantered.

"No," she said, "I wanted to talk with you. I wanted you to tell me what
Mrs. Rock said about me!"

"Just now? She said you were here."

"No, I mean that day at St. Johnswort."

Hewson laughed out for pleasure in her frankness, and then he felt a
gathering up of his coat-sleeve under her nervous fingers, as if (such a
thing being imaginable) she were going unwittingly to pinch him for his
teasing. "She said she wanted to explain you a little."

"And then what!"