AT the sight of the two persons in the garden Rose came straight down to them, and Mrs. Beever, sombre and sharp, still seeking relief in the oppor tunity for satire, remarked to her companion in a manner at once ominous and indifferent that her guest was evidently in eager pursuit of him. Tony replied with gaiety that he awaited her with fortitude, and Rose, reaching them, let him know that as she had something more to say to him she was glad he had not, as she feared, quitted the garden. Mrs. Beever hereupon signified her own intention of taking this course: she would leave their visitor, as she said, to Rose to deal with.

Rose smiled with her best grace. “ That’s as I leave Paul to you. I’ve just been with him.”

Mrs. Beever testified not only to interest, but to approval. “ In the library? ”

“In the drawing-room.” Rose the next moment conscientiously showed by a further remark her appreciation of the attitude that, on the part of her hostess, she had succeeded in producing. “ Miss Martle’s in the library.”

“And Effie?” Mrs. Beever asked.

“Effie, of course, is where Miss Martle is. ”

Tony, during this brief colloquy, had lounged away as restlessly as if, instead of beaming on the lady of Eastmead, Rose were watching the master of the other house. He promptly turned round. “I say, dear lady, you know be kind to her! ”

“To Effie?” Mrs. Beever demanded.

“To poor Jean.”

Mrs. Beever, after an instant’s reflection, took a humorous view of his request. “ I don’t know why you call her ‘ poor ’! She has declined an excellent settlement, but she’s not in misery yet.” Then she said to Rose: “ I’ll take Paul first.”

Rose had put down her parasol, pricking the point of it, as if with a certain shyness, into the close, firm lawn. “If you like, when you take Miss Martle ” She paused in deep contemplation of Tony.

“When I take Miss Martle?” There was a new encouragement in Mrs. Beever’s voice.

The apparent effect of this benignity was to make Miss Armiger’s eyes widen strangely at their com panion. “Why, I’ll come back and take the child.”

Mrs. Beever met this offer with an alertness not hitherto markedly characteristic of her intercourse with Rose. “ I’ll send her out to you.” Then by way of an obeisance to Tony, directing the words well at him: “ It won’t indeed be a scene for that poor lamb!” She marched off with her duty emblazoned on her square satin back.

Tony, struck by the massive characters in which it was written there, broke into an indulgent laugh, but even in his mirth he traced the satisfaction she took in letting him see that she measured with some complacency the embarrassment Rose might cause him. “ Does she propose to tear Miss Martle limb from limb?” he playfully inquired.

“Do you ask that,” said Rose, “ partly because you’re apprehensive that it’s what I propose to do to you? ”

“By no means, my dear Rose, after your just giving me so marked a sign of the pacific as your coming round ”

“On the question,” Rose broke in, “of one’s relation to that little image and echo of her adored mother? That isn’t peace, my dear Tony. You give me just the occasion to let you formally know that it’s war.”

Tony gave another laugh. “ War? ”

“Not on you I pity you too much.”

“Then on whom? ”

Rose hesitated. “ On any one, on every one, who may be likely to find that small child small as she is! inconvenient. Oh, I know,” she went on, “you’ll say I come late in the day for this and you’ll remind me of how very short a time ago it was that I declined a request of yours to occupy myself with her at all. Only half an hour has elapsed, but what has happened in it has made all the difference.”

She spoke without discernible excitement, and Tony had already become aware that the face she actually showed him was not a thing to make him estimate directly the effect wrought in her by the incongruous result of the influence he had put forth under pressure of her ardour. He needed no great imagination to conceive that this consequence might, on the poor girl’s part, well be mainly lodged in such depths of her nature as not to find an easy or an immediate way to the surface. That he had her to reckon with he was reminded as soon as he caught across the lawn the sheen of her white dress; but what he most felt was a lively, unreasoning hope that for the hour at least, and until he should have time to turn round and see what his own situation exactly contained for him, her mere incontestable cleverness would achieve a revolution during which he might take breath. This was not a hope that in any way met his difficulties it was a hope that only avoided them; but he had lately had a vision of something in which it was still obscure to him whether the bitter or the sweet prevailed, and he was ready to make almost any terms to be allowed to surrender himself to these first quick throbs of response to what was at any rate an impression of perfect beauty. He was in bliss with a great chill and in despair with a great lift, and confused and assured and alarmed divided between the joy and the pain of knowing that what Jean Martle had done she had done for Tony Bream, and done full in the face of all he couldn’t do to repay her. That Tony Bream might never marry was a simple enough affair, but that this rare creature mightn’t suddenly figured to him as formidable and exquisite. Therefore he found his nerves rather indebted to Rose for her being if that was the e............