"So you have got rid of him!" she said. "I think you're very silly."

"How did you know?" Evelyn asked with a start.

"I heard him walking up and down the terrace, and I heard you go out. You
can't walk over raked gravel without making a noise. He went along to
join you, and it was a good while before you came back at different
times. I've been waiting for this the last day or two."

Evelyn sat down with a rather strained smile.

"Well, I have sent him away."

Mabel regarded her indignantly.

"You'll never get another chance like this one. If I'd been in your
place, I'd have had Wallace if it had cost me no end of trouble to get
him. He said something about its being a pity I wasn't older, one day,
and I told him that I wasn't by any means as young as I looked. If you
had only taken him, I could have worn decent frocks. Nobody could call
the last one that!"

This was a favorite grievance, and Evelyn ignored it; but Mabel had
more to say.

"I suppose," she went on, "you don't know that Wallace has been getting
Gerald out of trouble?"

"Are you sure of that?"