offered to come herself.

There had then taken place another interview between herself and the man who held for her so strong an attraction and appeal. It had been a rather emotional interview. Harry Garlett, filled with gratitude, had insisted that she should have a really large, some would have said an extravagant, salary, and she had revealed the existence of the clever, idle, sickly brother who was the ever-present burden and anxiety of her life.

It had been her suggestion that the people in the neighbourhood should be told that she and her employer were related. Her name was Agatha Garlett Cheale, after all. Surprised, he had yielded, reddening as he did so under his tan.

“I daresay you’re right! They’re a gossiping set of women in my part of the world.”

“Not more so than in other places,” and something had made her add: “They gossiped about us in the hospital, you know.”

“Did they? I didn’t know that!” And he had looked amused—only amused.

Her first sight of Mrs. Garlett—how well she remembered it! “Poor Emily” had not been very gracious, though in time she had thawed. The sick woman realized the difference cool, competent Agatha Cheale made to the Thatched House, and to herself Mrs. Garlett grudgingly admitted that Miss Cheale’s sense and discretion matched her more useful qualities.

To those ladies who were kind enough to call on her—and practically every lady in the neighbourhood considered it her duty to make acquaintance with Harry Garlett’s cousin—Agatha explained that she never went out in the evening. So the delicate question as to whether she was or was not to be asked out to dinner with her employer was solved once for all, in the way every hostess had hoped it would be.

22As Dr. Maclean walked quickly down the short avenue which led from the Thatched House to the carriage gate his mind was full of the woman he had just left.

22

He did not like Agatha Cheale, yet he did feel intensely sorry for her. For one thing she must be so lonely at times, for, with one exception, she had made no friends in either Terriford or Grendon.

The one person of whom she saw a good deal was clever, malicious Miss Prince. People had wondered more than once at the link between Miss Prince and Agatha Cheale, but there was nothing mysterious 

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