“Thank you for this,” she said coldly, “and for telling me of Mrs. Garlett’s unexpected thought for me. I do not want a holiday, but now I may be able to send my brother abroad this next winter, if he lives as long.”

45“I was coming to that,” said Harry Garlett quickly. “I’m going away for a long holiday—certainly till Christmas, perhaps longer. But I’m keeping the household here together, and I’ve been wondering whether your brother would come and stay at the Thatched House as my guest, at any rate through the summer.”

45

She shook her head.

“I think I ought to tell you, Mr. Garlett, that his coming here is out of the question. I’m afraid, nay, I’m certain, that he was the man Lucy Warren let into the drawing room that night——”

A look of anger and disgust flashed into his face. So she had succeeded in rousing him at last?

She sighed, a weary, listless sigh.

“As I think I told you long ago, my brother’s one real interest in life is what he calls ‘falling in love’—and always with some entirely unsuitable person.”

Harry Garlett softened; he remembered very well his surprise when she had first told him about the unprincipled sickly brother whom she yet loved so dearly, and of whom she was, in a sense, proud.

“I feel grieved,” he said feelingly, “that you have this real anxiety always with you; I wish I could help you with it.”

“No one can help me with it. I knew he was bound to get into a scrape with some woman here.”

“What an extraordinary way to go on!”

“Extraordinary to you, no doubt. But you are a Galahad, Mr. Garlett.”

Her words were like the lash of a whip: he grew red under his tan, and looking at her straight for the first time during this, to him, most trying conversation, “I’m a very ordinary chap,” he said deliberately.

Neither of them spoke for a few moments. Harry Garlett turned and looked unseeingly out of the window. He was longing for the uncomfortable interview to end, and it was with relief that he heard her say:

“I must be going back to the Thatched Cottage now. Good-bye, Mr. Garlett, and thank you for all your kindness.”

“Good-bye and good luck!”

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