Mistress of Mellyn

I gazed through it and saw that I was looking down into the chapel. I could see clearly all but one side of the chapel the small altar with the triptych and the pews.

” They used to sit up here and watch the service if they were too ill to go down, my mother told me. They had a priest in the house in the old days. My mother didn’t tell me that. She didn’t know about the history of the house. Miss Jansen told me. She knew a lot about the house. She loved to come up here and look through the peep. She used to like the chapel too.”

” You were sorry when she went, Alvean, I believe.”

” Yes, I was. The other peep’s on the other side. Through that you can see into the hall.”

She went to the other side of the room and drew back the hangings there. In the wall was a similar star-shaped opening.

I looked down on the hall and caught my breath for it was a magnificent sight. Musicians were on the dais and the guests who had not yet begun to dance, stood about talking.

There were a great many people down there and the sound of the chatter rose dearly up to us. J) Alvean was breathless beside me, her eyes searching . in a manner which made me shiver slightly. Did she really believe that Alice would come from the tomb because she loved to dance?

I felt an impulse to put my arm about her and draw her to me. Poor motherless child, I thought. Poor bewildered little creature!

But of course I overcame that impulse. Alvean had no desire for my sympathy, I well knew.

I saw Connan TreMellyn in conversation with Celestine Nansellock, and Peter was there too. If Peter was one of the most handsome men I had ever seen, Connan, I told myself, n was the most elegant. There were few in that brilliant assembly whose faces were known to me, but I did see Lady Treslyn there. Even among the magnificently brilliant gathering she stood out. She was wearing a gown which seemed to be composed of yards and yards of chiffon, which was the colour of flame, and I guessed that she was one of the few who would have dared to wear such a colour. Yet had she wanted to attract attention to herself she could not have chosen anything more calculated to bring this result. Her dark hair looked almost black against the flame; her magnificent bust and shoulders were the whitest I had ever seen. She wore a band of diamonds in her hair, which was like a tiara, and diamonds sparkled about her person.

Alvean’s attention was caught by her even as mine was and her brows were drawn together in a frown.

” She is there then,” she murmured.

I said: ” Is her husband present?”

” Yes, the little old man over there talking to Colonel Penlands.”

” And which is Colonel Penlands?” She pointed the colonel out to me, and I saw with him a bent old man, whitehaired and wrinkled. It seemed incredible that he should be the husband of that flamboyant creature.

” Look!” whispered Alvean. ” My father is going to open the ball. He used to do it with Aunt Celestine, and at the same time my mother used to do it with Uncle Geoffry. I wonder who he will do it with this time.”

” With whom he will do it,” I murmured absentmindedly, but my attention, like Alvean’s was entirely on the scene below.

” The musicians are going to start now,” she said, ” They always start with the same tune. Do you know what it is? It’s the Furry Dance. Some of our ancestors came from Helston way and it was played then and it always has been since. You watch! Papa and Mamma used to dance the first bar or so with their partners, and all the others fell in behind.”

The musicians had begun, and I saw Connan take Celestine by the hand and lead her into the centre of the hall; Peter ^Nansellock followed, and be had chosen Lady Treslyn to be his partner.

I watched the four of them dance the first steps of the traditional dance, and I thought, Poor Celestine! Even gowned as she was in blue satin she looked ill at ease in that quartette. She lacked the elegance and nonchalance of Connan, the beauty of Lady Treslyn and the dash of her brother.

I thought it was a pity that he had to choose Celestine to open the ball, but that was tradition. The house was filled with tradition.

Such and such was done because it always had been done, and often for no other reason. Well, that was the way in great houses.

Neither Alvean nor I seemed to tire of watching the dancers. An hour passed and we were still there. I fancied that Connan glanced up once or twice. Did he know of his daughter’s habit of watching? I thought that it roust be Alvean’s bedtime, but that perhaps on such an occasion a little leniency would be permissible.

I was fascinated by the way she watched the dancers tirelessly, fervently, as though she were certain that if shej looked long enough she would see that face there which she longed to see.

It was now dark, but the moon had risen. I turned my eyes from the dance floor to look through the glass roof at that great gibbous moon which seemed to be smiling down on us. No candles for you, it seemed to say; you are banished from the gaiety and the glitter, but I will give you my soft and tender light instead.

The room, touched by moonlight, had a supernatural character all its own. I felt in such a room anything might happen.

I turned my attention back to the dancers. They were waltzing down there and I felt myself swaying to the rhythm. No one had been more astonished than myself when I had proved to be a good dancer. It had brought me partners at the dances to which Aunt Adelaide had taken me in those days when she had thought it possible to find a husband for me; alas for Aunt Adelaide, those invitations to the dances had not been extended to other pursuits.

And as I listened entranced I felt a band touch mine and I was so startled that I gave an audible gasp.

I looked down. Standing beside me was a small figure, and I was relieved to see that it was only Gillyflower.

” You have come to see the dancers?” I said.

She nodded.

She was not quite so tall as Alvean and could not reach the star-shaped peep, so I lifted her in my arms and held her up. I could not see very clearly in the moonlight but I was sure the blankness had left her eyes.

I said to Alvean: ” Bring a stool and Gillyflower can stand on it; then she will be able to see quite easily. “

Alvean said: ” Let her get it herself.”

Gilly nodded and I put her on the floor; she ran to the stool and brought it with her. I thought, since she understands, why can she not talk with the rest of us?

Alvean did not seem to want to look now that Gilly had come. She moved away from the peep and as the musicians below began the opening bars of that waltz which always enchanted me—I refer to Mr. Strauss’s Blue Danube Waltz— Alvean began to dance across the floor of the solarium.

The music seemed to have affected my feet. I don’t know what came over me that night. It was as though some spirit of daring had entered into my body, but I could not resist the strains of the Blue Danube Waltz.

I danced towards Alvean. I waltzed as I used to in those ballrooms to which I went accompanied by Aunt Adelaide, but I was sure that I never danced as I did that night in the solarium.

Alvean cried out with pleasure; I heard Gilly laugh too.

Alvean cried: ” Go on. Miss. Don’t stop. Miss. You do it well.”

So I went on dancing with an imaginary partner, dancing down the moonlit solarium with the lopsided moon smiling in at me. And when I reached the end of the room a figure moved towards me and I was no longer dancing alone.

” You’re exquisite,” said a voice, and there was Peter Nansellock in his elegant evening dress, and he was holding me as it was the custom to hold a partner in the waltz.

My feet faltered. He said: ” No … no. Listen, the children are protesting. You must dance with me, Miss Leigh, as you were meant to dance with me.”

We went on dancing. It was as though my feet, having begun would not stop.

But I said : ” This is most unorthodox.”

” It is most delightful,” he answered.

” You should be with the guests.”

” It is more fun to be with you.”

“You forget ” ” That you are a governess? I could, if you would allow me to.”

” There is no earthly reason why you should forget.”

” Only that I think you would be happier if we could all forget it.

How exquisitely you dance! “

” It is my only drawing room accomplishment.”

” I am sure it is one of many that you are forced to squander on this empty room.”

” Mr. Nansellock, do you not think this little jest has been played out?”

” It is no jest.”

” I shall now rejoin the children.” We had come dose to them and I saw little Gilly’s face enrapt, and I saw the admiration in Alvean’s. If I stopped dancing I should revert to my old position; while I went on dancing I was an exalted being.

I thought how ridiculous were the thoughts I was entertaining ; but tonight I wanted to be ridiculous, I wanted to be frivolous.

” So here he is.”

To my horror I saw that several people had come into the solarium, and my apprehension did not lessen when I saw the flame-coloured gown of Lady Treslyn among them, for I was sure that wherever that name-coloured dress was there Connan TreMellyn would be.

Somebody started to clap; others took it up. Then The Blue “Danube ended.

I put my hand to my hair in my acute embarrassment. I knew that dandng had loosened the pins.

I thought: I shall be dismissed tomorrow for my irresponsibility, and perhaps I deserve it.

” What an excellent idea,” said someone. ” Dandng in moonlight. What could be more agreeable? And one can hear the music up here almost as well as down there.”

Someone else said : ” This is a beautiful ballroom, Connan.”

” Then let us use it for that purpose,” he answered.

He went to the peep and shouted through it: ” Once more-The Beautiful Blue Danube.” Then the music started. I turned to Alvean and I gripped Gilly by the hand.

People were already beginning to dance. They were talking together and they did not bother to lower their voices. Why should they? I was only the governess. I heard a voice: ” The governess. Alvean’s, you know.”

” Forward creature! I suppose another of Peter’s light ladies.”

“I’m sorry for the poor-things. Life must be dull for them.”

” But in broad moonlight! What could be more depraved?”

” The last one had to be dismissed, I believe.”

” This one’s turn will come.”

I was blushing hotly. I wanted to face them all, to tell them that my conduct was very likely less depraved than that of some of them.

I was furiously angry and a little frightened. I was aware of Connan’s face in moonlight for he was standing near to me, looking at me, I feared, in a manner signifying the utmost disapproval, which I was sure he was feeling.

” Alvean,” he said, ” go to your room and take Gillyflower with you.”

She dared not disobey when he spoke in those tones.

I said as coolly as I could : ” Yes, let us go.”

But as I was about to follow the children I found my arm gripped and Connan had come a little closer to me.

He said : ” You dance extremely well. Miss Leigh. I could never resist a good dancer. Perhaps it is because I scarcely excel in the art myself.”

” Thank you,” I said. But he still held my arm. ” I am sure,” he went on, ” that The Blue Danube is a favourite of yours. You looked … enraptured.” And with that be swung me into his arms and I found that I was dancing with him among his guests . I in my lavender cotton and my turquoise brooch, they in their chiffons and velvets, their emeralds and diamonds.

I was glad of the moonlight. I was so overcome with shame, for I believed that he was angry and that his intention was to shame me even further.

My feet caught the rhythm and I thought to myself : Always in future The Blue Danube will mean to me a fantastic dance in the solarium with Connan TreMellyn as my partner.

” I apologise. Miss Leigh,” he said, ” for my guests’ bad manners.”

” It is what I must expect and no doubt what I deserve.”

” What nonsense,” he said, and I told myself that I was dreaming, for his voice which was dose to my ear sounded tender.

We had come to the end of the room and, to my complete astonishment, he had whirled me through the curtains and out of the door. We were on a small landing between two flights of stone stairs in a part of the house which I had not seen before.

We stopped dancing, but he still kept his arms about me. On the wall a paraffin lamp of green Jade burned; its light was only enough to show me his face. It looked a little brutal I thought.

” Miss Leigh,” he said, ” you are very charming when you abandon your severity.”

I caught my breath with dismay for he was forcing me against the wall and kissing me.

I was horrified as much by my own emotions as by what was happening. I knew what that kiss meant: You are not averse to a mild flirtation with Peter Nansellock; therefore why not with me?

My anger was so great that it was beyond my control. With all my might I pushed him from me and he was so taken by surprise that he reeled backwards. I lifted my skirts and began to run as fast as I could down the stairs.

I did not know where I was but I went on running blindly and eventually found the gallery and so made my way back to my own room.

There I threw myself on to my bed and lay there until I recovered my breath.

There is only one thing I can do, I told myself, and that is get away from this house with all speed. He has now made his intentions dear to me. I have no doubt at all that Miss Jansen was dismissed because she refused to accept his attentions. The man is a monster. He appeared to think that anyone whom he employed belonged to him completely. Did he imagine he was an eastern pasha? How dared he treat me in such a way!

There was a constricted feeling in my throat which made me feel as though I were going to choke. I was more desperately unhappy that I had ever been in my life. It was due to him. I would not face the truth, but I really cared more deeply than I had about anything else that he should regard me with such contempt.

These were the danger signals.

I had need now of my common sense.

I rose from my bed and locked my door. I must make sure that my door was locked during the last night I would spend in this house. The only other way to my room would be through Alvean’s room and the schoolroom, and I knew he would not attempt to come that way.

Nevertheless I felt unsafe.

Nonsense, I said to myself, you can protect yourself. If he should dare enter your room you could pull the bell rope immediately.

The first thing I would do would be to write to Phillida. I sat down and tried to do this but my hands were trembling and my handwriting was so shaky that the note looked ridiculous.

I could start packing.

I did this.

I went to the cupboard and pulled open the door. For a moment I thought someone was standing there, and I cried out in alarm; which showed the nervous state to which I had been reduced. I saw what it was almost immediately: The riding habit which Alvean bad procured for me. She must have hung it in my wardrobe herself. I had forgotten all about this afternoon’s little adventure for what had happened in the solarium and after had temporarily obliterated everything else.

I packed my trunk in a very short time, for my possessions were not many. Then, as I was more composed, I sat down and wrote the letter to Phillida.

When I had finished writing I heard the sound of voices below and I went to my window. Some of the guests had come out on to the lawn, and I saw them dancing down there. More came out.

I heard someone say: ” It’s such a heavenly night. That moon is too good to miss.”

I stood back in the shadows watching, and eventually I saw what I had been waiting for. There was Connan. He was dancing with Lady Treslyn; his head was dose to hers. I imagined the sort of things he was saying to her.

Then I turned angrily from the window and tried to tell myself that the pain I felt within me was disgust.

I undressed and went to bed. I lay sleepless for a long time and when I did sleep I had jumbled dreams that were of Connan, myself and Lady Treslyn. And always in the background of these dreams was that shadowy figure who had haunted my thoughts since the day I had come here.

I awoke with a start. The moon was still visible and in the room in my half awakened state I seemed to see the dark shape of a woman.

I knew it was Alice. She did not speak yet she was telling me something. ” You must not go from here. You must stay. I cannot rest.

You can help me. You must help us all. “

I was trembling all over. I sat up in bed. Now I saw what had startled me. When I had packed I had left the door of the cupboard open, and what appeared to be the ghost of Alice was only her riding habit.

I was late up next morning because when I had slept I had done so deeply, and it was Kitty banging on the door with my hot water who awakened me. She could not get in and dearly she wondered what was wrong.

I leaped out of bed and unlocked the door.

” Anything wrong, Miss?” she asked.

” No,” I answered sharply, and she waited a few seconds for my explanation ‘of the locked door.

I was certainly not going to give it to her, and she was so full of last night’s ball that she was not as interested as she would have been had there been nothing else to absorb her.

” Wasn’t it lovely. Miss? I watched from my room. They danced on the lawn in the moonlight. My dear life, I never saw such a sight. It was like it used to be when the mistress was here. You look tired, Miss.

Did they keep you awake? “

” Yes,” I said, ” they did.”

” Oh, well, it’s all over now. Mr. Polgrey’s already having the plants taken back. Fussing over them like a hen with her chicks, he be. The hall do look a sorry mess this morning, I can tell ‘ee. It’s going to take Daisy and me all day to get it cleared up, you see.”

I yawned and she put my hot water by the hip bath and went out. In five minutes’ time she was back again.

I was half clothed, and wrapped a towel about me to shield myself from her too inquisitive eyes.

” It’s Master,” she said. ” He’s asking for you. Wants to see you right away. In the punch room. He said,” Tell Miss Leigh it is most urgent. “

” ” Oh,” I said.

“Most urgent, Miss,” Kitty repeated, and I nodded.

I finished washing and dressed quickly. I guessed what this meant.

Very likely there would be some complaint. I would be given my notice because I was inefficient in some way. I began to think of Miss Jansen, and I wondered whether something of this nature had happened in her case. ” Here one day and gone the next.” Some trumped-up case against her. What if he should trump up a case against me?

That man is quite unscrupulous! I thought.

Well, I would be first. I would tell of my decision to leave, before he had a chance to dismiss me.

I went down to the punch room prepared for battle.

He was wearing a blue riding jacket and he did not look as though he had been up half the night.

” Good morning. Miss Leigh,” he said, and to my astonishment he smiled.

I did not return the smile. ” Good morning,” I said. ” I g have already packed my bags and should like to leave as soon as possible.”

” Miss Leigh!” His voice was reproachful, and I felt an absurd joy rising within me. I was saying to myself: He doesn’t want you to go.

He’s not asking you to go. He’s actually going to apologise.

I heard myself say in a high, prim voice, which I should have hated in anyone else as self righteous and priggish: ” I consider it the only course open to me after ” He cut in: ” After my outrageous conduct of last night. Miss Leigh, I am going to ask you to forget that. I fear the excitement of the moment overcame me. I forgot with whom I was dancing. I have asked you to overlook my depravity on this occasion, and to say generously I am sure you are generous, Miss Leigh we will draw a veil over that unpleasant little incident and go on as we were before.”

I had a notion that he was mocking me but I was suddenly so happy that I did not care.

I was not going. The letter to Phillida need not be posted. I was not to leave in disgrace.

I inclined my head and I said: ” I accept your apology, Mr. TreMellyn.

We will forget this unpleasant and unfortunate incident. “

Then I turned and went out of the room.

I found that I was taking the stairs three at a time; my feet were almost dancing as they had been unable to resist dancing last night in the solarium.

The incident was over. I was going to stay. The whole house seemed to warm to me. I knew in that moment that if I had to leave this place I should be quite desolate.

I had always been given to self-analysis and I said to myself, Why this elation? Why would you be so wretched if you had to leave Mount I had the answer ready: Because there is some secret here. Because I want to solve it. Because I want to help those two bewildered children; for Alvean is as bewildered as poor little Gillyflower.

But perhaps that was not the only reason. Perhaps I was a little more than interested in the Master of the house.

Perhaps had I been wise I should have recognised the danger signals.

But I was not wise. Women in my position rarely are.

That day Alvean and I took our riding lesson as usual. It went off well and the only remarkable thing about it was that I wore the new riding habit. It was different from the other, for it consisted of the tightly fitting dress of light-weight material and with it was a jacket, tailored almost like a man’s.

I was delighted that Alvean showed no sign of fear after her small mishap of the day before, and I said that in a few days’ time we might attempt a little jumping.

We arrived back at the house and I went to my room to change before tea.

I took off the jacket, thinking of the shock these things had given me in the night, and I laughed at my fears, for I was in very high spirits that day. I slipped out of the dress with some difficulty (Alice had been just that little bit more slender than I), put on my grey cotton—Aunt Adelaide had warned me that it was advisable not to wear the same dress two days running-and was about to hang up the riding habit in the cupboard when I felt something in the pocket of the coat.

I thrust in my hand in surprise, for I was sure I had had my hands in the pockets before this and nothing had been there.

There was nothing actually in the pocket now but there was something beneath the silk lining. I laid the jacket on the bed and examining it soon discovered the concealed pocket. I merely had to unhook it and there it was; in it was a book, a small diary.

My heart beat very fast as I took it out because I knew that this belonged to Alice.

I hesitated for a moment but I could not resist the impulse to look inside. Indeed I felt in that moment that it was my duty to look inside.

On the fly leaf was written in a rather childish hand ” Alice TreMellyn.” I looked at the date. It was the previous year so I knew that she had written in that diary during the last year of her life.

I turned the leaves. If I had expected a revelation of character I was soon disappointed. Alice had merely used this n as a record for her appointments. There was nothing in this book to make me understand her more.

I looked at the entries. ” Mount Widden to tea.”

” The Trelanders to dine.”

” C to Penzance.”

” C due back.”

Still it was written in Alice’s handwriting and that made it exciting to me.

I turned to the last entry in the book. It was under the twentieth of August. I looked back to July. Under the fourteenth was written: ” Treslyns and Trelanders to dine at M.M.”

” See dressmaker about blue satin.”

” Do not forget to see Polgrey about flowers.”

” Send Gilly to dressmaker.”

” Take Alvean for fitting.”

” If Jeweller has not sent brooch by sixteenth go to see him.” And on the sixteenth: ” Brooch not returned must go along tomorrow morning. Must have it for dinner party at Trelanders on eighteenth.”

It all sounded very trivial. What I had believed might be a great discovery was nothing very much. I put the book back into the pocket and went along to have tea in the schoolroom.

While Alvean and I were reading together a sudden thought struck me. I didn’t know the exact date of Alice’s death but it must have been soon after she was writing those trivial things in her diary. How odd that she should have thought it worth while to make those entries when she was planning to leave her husband and daughter for another man.

It suddenly became imperative to know the exact date of her death.

Alvean had had tea with her father because several people had come to pay duty calls and compliment Connan on last night’s ball.

Thus I was free to go out alone. So I made my way down to Mellyn village and to the churchyard where I presumed Alice’s remains would have been buried.

I had not seen much of the village before as I had had little opportunity of going so far except when we went to church on Sunday, so it was an interesting tour of exploration.

I ran almost all the way downhill and was very soon in the village. I reminded myself that it would be a different matter toiling uphill on my way back.

The village in the valley nestled about the old church, the grey tower of which was half covered in ivy. There was a pleasant little village green and a few grey stone houses clustered round it among which was a row of very ancient cottages which I guessed were of the same age as the church. I promised myself that I would make a closer examination of the village later. In the meantime I was most eager to find Alice’s grave.

I went through the lych gate and into the churchyard. It was very quiet there at this time of the day. I felt I was surrounded by the stillness of death and I almost wished that I had brought Alvean with me. She could have pointed out her mother’s grave.

How could I find it among these rows of grey crosses and headstones, I wondered as I looked about me helplessly. Then I thought, the TreMellyns would no doubt have some grand memorial to their dead; I must look for the most splendid vault, and I am sure I shall quickly find it that way.

I saw a huge vault of black marble and gilt not far off. I made for this and quickly discovered it to be that of the Nansellock family.

A sudden thought occurred to me. Geoffry Nansellock would lie here, and he died on the same night as Alice. Were they not found dead together?

I discovered the inscription engraved on the marble. This tomb contained the bones of defunct Nansellocks as far back as the middle seventeen hundreds. I remembered that the family had not been in Mount Widden as early as there had been TreMellyns at Mount Mellyn.

It was not difficult to find GeofFry’s name for his was naturally the last entry on the list of the dead.

He died last year, I saw, on the 17th of July.

I was all eagerness to go back and look at the diary and check up that date.

I turned from the tomb and as I did so I saw Celestine Nansellock coming towards me.

” Miss Leigh,” she cried. ” I thought it was you.”

I felt myself flush because I remembered seeing her last night among the guests in the solarium, and I wondered what she was thinking of me now.

“I took a stroll down to the village,” I answered, “and found myself here.”

” I see you’re looking at my family tomb.”

” Yes. It’s a beautiful thing.”

” If such a thing can be beautiful. I come here often,” she volunteered. ” I Like to bring a few flowers for Alice.”

” Oh, yes,” I stammered.

” You saw the TreMellyn vault, I suppose?”

” No.”

” It’s over here. Come and look.”

I stumbled across the long grass to the vault which rivalled that of the Nansellocks in its magnificence.

On the black slab was a vase of Michaelmas daisies—large perfect blooms that looked like mauve stars.

” I’ve just put them there,” she said. ” They were her favourite flowers.”

Her lips trembled, and I thought she was going to burst into tears.

I looked at the date and I saw it was that on which Geoffry Nansellock had died.

I said: ” I shall have to go back now.”

She nodded. She seemed too moved to be able to speak. I thought then:

She loved Alice. She seems to have loved her more than anyone else.

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her about the diary I had discovered, but I hesitated. The memory of last night’s shame was too near to me. I might be reminded that I was, after all, only the governess. And what right had I, in any case, to meddle in their affairs?

I left her there and as I went away I saw her sink to her knees. I turned again later and saw that her face was buried in her hands and her shoulders were heaving.

I hurried back to the house and took out the diary. So on the l6th of July last year, on the day before Alice was supposed to have eloped with Geoffry Nansellock, she had written in her diary that if her

brooch was not returned on the next day she n must go along to the jeweller as she needed it for a dinner party to be held on the i8th.

That entry had not been made by a woman who was planning to elope.

I felt that I had almost certain proof in my hands that the body which had been found with Geoffry Nansellock’s on the wrecked train was not Alice’s.

I was back at the old question. What had happened to Alice? If she was not lying inside the black marble vault, where was she?

I felt I had discovered a vital clue but it took me no further. Each day I woke up expectant, but of the days which passed one was very like another. Sometimes I pondered on several courses of action. I wondered whether I would go to Connan TreMellyn and tell him that I had seen his wife’s diary and that it clearly showed she had not been planning to leave.

Then I told myself I did not quite trust Connan TreMellyn, and there was one thought concerning him which I did not want to explore too thoroughly. I had already begun to ask myself the question: Suppose Alice was not on the train, and something else happened to her, who would be most likely to know what that was? Could it be Connan TreMellyn?

There was Peter Nansellock. I might discuss this matter with him, but he was too frivolous; he turned every line of conversation towards the flirtatious.

There was his sister. She was the most likely person. I knew that she had been fond of Alice; they must have been the greatest friends.

Celestine was clearly the one in whom I could best confide. And yet I hesitated. Celestine belonged to that other world into which I had been clearly shown on more than one occasion, I had no right to intrude. It was not for me, a mere governess, to set myself up as investigator.

The person in whom I might confide was Mrs. Polgrey, but again I shrank from doing this. I could not forget her spoonfuls of whisky and her attitude towards Gilly.

So I decided that for the time being I would keep my suspicions to myself. October was upon us. I found the changing seasons delightful in this part of the world. The to carry with it the scent of spices from Spain. I had never seen blustering southwest wind was warm and damp, and it seemed so many spiders’ webs as I did that October. They draped themselves over the hedges like gossamer cloth sewn with brilliants. When the sun came out it was almost as warm as June. ” Summer do go on a long time in Cornwall,” Tapperty told me.

The sea mist would come drifting in, wrapping itself about the grey stone of the house so that from the arbour in the south gardens it would sometimes be completely hidden. The gulls seemed to screech on a melancholy note on such days as though they were warning us that life was a sorrowful affair. And in the humid climate the hydrangeas continued to flower blue, pink and yellow in enormous masses of bloom such as I should not have expected to find outside a hothouse. The roses went on flowering, and with them the fuchsias.

When I went down to the village one day I saw a notice outside the church to the effect that the date of the horse show was fixed for the 1st of November.

I went back and told Alvean. I was delighted that she had lost none of her enthusiasm for the event. I had been afraid that, as the time grew near, her fear might have returned.

I said to her : ” There’s only three weeks. We really ought to get in a little more practice.”

She was quite agreeable.

We could, I suggested, rearrange our schedule. Perhaps we could ride for an hour both in the mornings and the afternoons.

She was eager. ” I’ll see what can be done,” I promised.

Connan TreMellyn had gone down to Penzance. I discovered this quite by accident. Kitty told me, when she brought in my water, one evening.

” Master have gone off this afternoon,” she said. “

“Tis thought he’ll be away for a week or more.”

” I hope he’s back in time for the show,” I said.

” Oh, he’ll be back for that. He be one of the Judges. He’m always here for that.”

I was annoyed with the man. Not that I expected him to tell me he was going; but I did feel he might have had the grace to say goodbye to his daughter.

I thought a good deal about him and I found myself wondering whether he had really gone to Penzance. I wondered whether Lady Treslyn was at home, or whether she had found it necessary to pay a visit to some relative.

Really! I admonished myself. ” Whatever has come over you? How can you entertain such thoughts? It’s not as though you have any proof!

I promised myself that while Connan TreMellyn was away there was no need to think of him, and that would be a relief.

I was not entirely lying about that. I did feel relaxed by the thought that he was out of the house. I no longer felt it necessary to lock my door; but I continued to do so, purely on account of the Tapperty girls. I did not want them to know that I locked it for fear of the Master and although they were quite without education, they were sharp enough where such matters were concerned.

” Now,” I said to Alvean, ” we will concentrate on practising for the show.”

I procured a list of the events. There were two jumping contests for Alvean’s age group, and I decided that she should take the elementary one, for I felt that she had a good chance of winning a prise in that; and of course the whole point of this was that she should win a prize and astonish her father.

” Look, Miss,” said Alvean, ” there’s this one. Why don’t you go in for this?”

” Of course I shall do no such thing.”

“But why not?”

” My dear child, I am here to teach you, not to enter for competitions.

A mischievous look came into her eyes. ” Miss,” she said, ” I’m going to enter you for that. You’d win. There’s nobody here can ride as well as you do. Oh, Miss, you must!”

She was looking at me with what I construed as shy pride, and I felt a thrill of pleasure. I enjoyed her pride in me. She wanted me to win.

Well, why not? There was no rule about social standing in these contests, was there?

I fell back on my stock phrase for ending an embarrassing discussion:

” We’ll see,” I said.

One afternoon we were riding dose to Mount Widden and met Peter Nansellock.

He was mounted on a beautiful bay mare, the sight of which made my eyes glisten with envy.

He came galloping towards us and pulled up, dramatically removing his hat and bowing from the waist.

Alvean laughed delightedly.

” Well met, dear ladies,” he cried. ” Were you coming to call on us?”

” We were not,” I answered.

” How unkind! But now you are here you must come in for a little refreshment.”

I was about to protest when Alvean cried: ” Oh, do let’s, Miss. Yes, please, Uncle Peter, we’ll come in.”

” I had hoped you would call before this,” he said reproachfully.

” We had received no definite invitation,” I reminded him.

” For you there is always welcome at Mount Widden. Did I not make that dear?”

He had turned his mare and we all three walked our horses side by side. He followed my gaze, which was fixed on the mare.

” You like her?” he said.

” Indeed I do. She’s a beauty.”

” She’s a real beauty, are you not, Jadnth my pet?”

” Jadnth. So that’s her name.”

” Pretty, you’re thinking. Pretty name for a pretty creature. She’ll go like the wind. She’s worth four of that lumbering old cart horse you’re riding, Miss Leigh.”

” Lumbering old cart bourse? How absurd! Dion is a very fine horse.”

“Was, Miss Leigh. Was! Do you not think that the creature has seen better days? Really, I should have thought Connan could have given you something better from his stables than poor old Dion.”

” It was not a matter of his giving her any horse to ride,” said Alvean in hot defence of her father. ” He does not know what horses we ride, does he. Miss. These are the horses which Tapperty said we could have.”

” Poor Miss Leigh! She should have a mount worthy of her. Miss Leigh, before you go, I would like you to take a turn on Jacinth. She’ll quickly show you what it feels like to be on a good mount again.” I ” Oh,” I said lightly, ” we’re satisfied with what we have. | They serve my purpose which is to teach Alvean to ride.” | ” We’re practising for the show,” Alvean told him. ” I’m j going in for one of the events, but don’t tell Papa; it’s to be . a surprise.”

Peter put his finger to his lips. ” Trust me. I’ll keep your secret.”

| ” And Miss is entering for one of the events too. I’ve made . her!”

” She’ll be victorious,” he cried. ” I’ll make a bet on it.”

I said curtly: ” I’m not at all sure about this. It is only an idea of Alvean’s.”

” But you must, Miss!” cried Alvean. ” I insist.”

” We’ll both insist,” added Peter.

We had reached the gates of Mount Widden which were wide open. There was no lodge here as at Mount Mellyn. We went up the drive where the same types of flowers grew in profusion the hydrangeas, fuchsias and fir trees which were indigenous to this part of the country.

I saw the house, grey stone as Mount Mellyn was, but much smaller and with fewer outbuildings. I noticed immediately that it was not so well cared for as what in that moment I presumptuously called ” our ” house and I felt an absurd thrill of pleasure because Mount Mellyn compared so favourably with Mount Widden.

There was a groom in the stables and Peter told him to take charge of our horses. He did so and we went into the house. Peter clapped his hands and shouted: ” Dick! Where are you, Dick?”

The houseboy, whom I had seen when he had been sent over to Mount Mellyn with messages, appeared; and Peter said to him : ” Tea, Dick. At once, in the library. We have guests. “

” Yes, Master,” said Dick and hurried away.

We were in a hall which seemed quite modern when compared with our own hall. The floor was tessellated and there was a wide staircase at one end of it which led to a gallery containing oil paintings, presumably of the Nansellock family.

I laughed at myself for scorning the place, which was very much larger and much grander than the vicarage in which I had spent my childhood.

But it had a neglected air—one might almost say one of decay.

Peter took us into the library, a huge room, the walls of which were lined with books on three sides. I noticed that the furniture was dusty and that dirt was visible in the heavy curtains. What they need, I thought, is a Mrs. Polgrey with her beeswax and turpentine.

” I pray you sit down, dear ladies,” said Peter. ” It is to be hoped that tea will not long be delayed, although I must warn you that meals are not served with the precision which prevails in our rival across the cove.”

” Rival?” I said in surprise.

” Well, how could there fail to be a little rivalry? Here we stand, side by side. But the advantages are all with them. They have the grander house, and the servants to deal with it. Your father, dear Alvean, is a man of property. We Nansellocks are his poor relations.”

” You are not our relations,” Alvean reminded him.

” Now is that not strange? One would have thought that, living side by side for generations, the two families would have mingled and become one. There must have been charming TreMellyn girls and charming Nansellock men. How odd that they did not join up and become relations! I suppose the mighty TreMellyns always looked down their arrogant noses at the poor Nansellocks and went farther afield to make

their marriages. But now there is the fair Alvean. How maddening n that we have no boy of your age to marry you, Alvean. J shall have to wait for you. There is nothing for it but that.”

Alvean laughed delightedly. I could see that she was quite fascinated by him; and I thought. Perhaps he is more serious than he pretends.

Perhaps he has already begun courting Alvean in a subtle way.

Alvean began to talk about the show and he listened attentively. I occasionally joined in, and so the time passed until tea was brought to us.

” Miss Leigh, will you honour us by pouring out?” Peter asked me.

I said I should be happy to do so, and I placed myself at the head of the tea table.

Peter watched me with attention which I found faintly embarrassing because, not only was it admiring, but contented.

” How glad I am that we met,” he murmured as Alvean handed him his cup of tea. ” To think that, if I had been five minutes earlier or five minutes later, our paths might not have crossed. What a great part chance plays in our lives.”

” Possibly we should have met at some other time.”

” There may not be much more time left to us.”

” You sound morbid. Do you think that something is going to happen to one of us?”

He looked at me very seriously. ” Miss Leigh,” he said, ” I am going away.”

” Where,” Uncle Peter? ” demanded Alvean.

” Far away, my child, to the other side of the world.”

” Soon?” I asked.

” Possibly with the New Year.”

” But where are you going?” cried Alvean in dismay.

” My dearest child, I believe you are a little hurt at the thought of my departure.”

” Uncle, where?” she demanded imperiously.

“To seek my fortune.”

” You’re teasing. You’re always teasing.”

” Not this time. I have heard from a friend who was at Cambridge with me. He is in Australia, and there he has made a fortune. Gold! Think of it, Alvean. You too, Miss Leigh. Lovely gold … gold which can make a man … or woman … rich . And all one has to do is pluck it out of the ground.”

” Many go in the hope of making fortunes,” I said, ” but are they all successful?”

” There speaks the practical woman. No, Miss Leigh, they are not all successful; but there is something named hope which, I believe, springs eternal in the human breast. All may not have gold but they can ‘all have hope.”

” Of what use is hope if it is proved to be false?”

” Until she is proved false she can give so much pleasure, Miss Leigh.”

” Then I wish that your hopes may not prove false.”

” Thank you.”

” But I don’t want you to go, Uncle Peter.”

” Thank you, my dear. But I shall come back a rich man. Imagine it.

Then I shall build a new wing on Mount Widden. I will make the house as grand as no, grander than Mount Mellyn. And in the years to come people will say it was Peter Nansellock who saved the family fortunes.

For, my dear young ladies, someone has to save them . soon. “

He then began to talk of his friend who had gone to Australia a penniless young man and who, he was sure, was now a millionaire, or almost.

He began planning how he would rebuild the house, and we both joined in. It was a pleasant game building a house in the mind, to one’s own desires.

I felt exhilarated by his company. He at least, I thought, has never made me feel my position. The very fact of his poverty or what to him seemed poverty endeared him to me.

It was an enjoyable tea time.

Afterwards he took us out to the stables and both he and Alvean insisted on my mounting Jacinth, and showing them what I could do with her. My saddle was put on her, and I galloped her and jumped with her, and she responded to my lightest touch. She was a delicious creature and I envied him his possession of her.

” Why,” he said, ” she has taken to you. Miss Leigh. Not a single protest at finding a new rider on her back.”

I patted her fondly and said : ” She’s a beauty.”

And the sensitive creature seemed to understand.

We then mounted our horses, and Peter came to the gates of Mount Mellyn with us, riding Jacinth.

As we went up to our rooms I decided that it had indeed been a very enjoyable afternoon.

Alvean came to my room and stood for a while, her head on one side.

She said: ” He likes you, I think. Miss.”

” He is merely polite towards me,” I replied.

” No, I think he likes you rather specially … in the way he liked Miss Jansen.”

” Did Miss Jansen go to tea at Mount Widden?”

” Oh yes. I didn’t have riding lessons with her, but we used to walk over there. And one day we had tea just as we did this afternoon. He’d just bought Jacinth then and he showed her to us. He said he was going to change her name to make her entirely his. Then he said her name was to be Jacinth. That was Miss Jansen’s name.”

I felt foolishly deflated. Then I said: ” He must have been very sorry when she left so suddenly.”

Alvean was thoughtful. ” Yes, I think he was. But he soon forgot all about her. After all” — I finished the sentence for her: “She was only the governess, of course.”

It was later that day when Kitty came up to my room to tell me that there was a message for me from Mount Widden.

“And something more too. Miss,” she said; it was dearly something which exdted her, but I refrained from questioning her since I should soon discover what this was. ” Well,” I said, ” where is the message?”

” In the stables. Miss.” She giggled. ” Come and see.” I went to the stables, and Kitty followed at a distance.

When I arrived there I saw Dick, The Mount Widden houseboy; and, to my astonishment, he had the mare. Jacinth, with him.

He handed me a note. I saw that Daisy, her father, and Billy Trehay were all watching me with amused and knowing eyes. I opened the note and read it. It said:

Dear Miss Leigb, You could not hide from me your admiration for Jacinth. I believe she reciprocates your feelings. That is why I am making you a present of her. I could not bear to see such a fine and graceful rider as yourself on poor old Dion. So pray accept this gift.

Your admiring neighbour, Peter Nansellock

In spite of efforts to control myself I felt the hot colour rising from my neck to my forehead. I knew that Tapperty found it hard to repress a snigger.

How could Peter be so foolish! Was he laughing at me? How could I possibly accept such a gift, even if I wanted to? Horses have to be fed and stabled. It was almost as though be had forgotten this was not my home.

” Is there an answer. Miss?” asked Dick.

” Indeed there is,” I said. ” I will go to my loom at once, and you may take it back with you.”

I went with as much dignity as I could muster in front of such an array of spectators back to the house, and in my room I wrote briefly’ Dear Mr. Nansellock, Thank you for your magnificent gift which I am, of course, quite unable to accept. I have no means of keeping a horse here. It may have escaped you that I am employed in this house as a governess. I could not possibly afford the upkeep of Jacinth. Thank you for the kind thought.

Yours truly, Martha Leigh

I went straight back to the stables. I could hear them all laughing and talking excitedly as I approached.

” Here you are, Dick,” I said. ” Please take this note to your master with Jacinth.”

” But …” stammered Dick. ” I was to leave her here.”

I looked straight into Tapperty’s lewd old face.

“Mr. Nansellock,” I said, ” is fond of playing jokes.” Then I went back to the house.

The next day was Saturday and Alvean said that, as it was a half holiday, could we not take the morning off and go to the’ moors. Her Great-Aunt Clara had a house there, and she would be pleased to see us.

I considered this. I thought it would be rather pleasant to get away from the house for a few hours. I knew that they must all be talking about me and Peter Nansellock.

I guessed that he had behaved with Miss Jansen as he was behaving with me, and it amused them all to see the story of one governess turning out so much like another.

I wondered about Miss Jansen. Had she perhaps been a little frivolous?

I pictured her stealing, whatever she was supposed to have stolen, that she might buy herself fine clothes to appear beautiful in the sight of her admirer.

And he had not cared when she was dismissed. A fine friend he would be!

We set out after breakfast. It was a beautiful day for riding for the October sun was not fierce and there was a soft southwest wind. Alvean was in high spirits, and I thought this would be a good exercise in staying power. If she could manage the long ride to her great aunt’s house and back without fatigue I should be delighted.

I felt it was pleasant to get away from the watchful eyes of the servants, and it was delightful to be in the moorland country.

I found the great tracts of moor fitted my mood. I was enchanted by the low stone walls, the grey boulders and the gay little streams which trickled over them.

I warned Alvean to be watchful of boulders, but she was sure-seated and alert now, so I did not feel greatly concerned.

We studied the map which would guide us to Great-Aunt Clara’s house—a few miles south of Bodmin. Alvean had travelled there in a carriage once or twice and she thought she would know the road; but the moor was the easiest place in the world in which to lose oneself, and I thought that we could profit by the occasion to learn a little map-reading.

But I had left a great deal of my severity behind and I found myself laughing with Alvean when we took the wrong road and had to retrace our steps.

But at length we reached The House on the Moors which was the picturseque name of Great-Aunt Clara’s home.

And a charming house it was, set there on the outskirts of a moorland village. There was the church, the little inn, the few houses and The House on the Moors which was like a small manor house.

Great-Aunt Clara lived here with three servants to minister to her wants, and when we arrived there was great excitement as we were quite unexpected.

” Why, bless my soul if it b’aint Miss Alvean!” cried an elderly housekeeper. ” And who be this you have brought with ‘ee, my dear?”

” It is Miss Leigh, my governess,” said Alvean.

” Well now! And be there just the two on you? And b’aint your papa here?”

” No. Papa has gone to Penzance.”

I wondered then whether I had been wrong in acceding to Alvean’s wishes, and had forgotten my position by imposing myself on Great-Aunt Clara without first asking permission.

I wondered if I should be banished to the kitchen to eat with the servants. Such a procedure did not greatly disturb me and I would rather have done that than sit down with a haughty, disapproving old woman.

But I was soon reassured. We were taken into a drawing room and there was Great-Aunt Clara, a charming old lady seated in an armchair, whitehaired, pink-cheeked with bright friendly eyes. There was an ebony stick beside her, so I guessed she had difficulty in walking.

Alvean ran to her and she was warmly embraced.

Then the lively blue eyes were on me.

” So you are Alvean’s governess, my dear,” she said. ” Well, that is nice. And how thoughtful of you to bring her to see me. It is particularly fortunate, for I have my grandson staying with n me and I fear he grows a little weary of having no playmates of his own age. When he hears Alvean has arrived he’ll be quite excited.”

I did not believe that the grandson could be any more excited than Great-Aunt Clara herself. She was certainly charming to me, so much so that I forgot my diffidence and I really did feel like a friend calling on a friend, rather than a governess bringing her charge to see a relative, Dandelion wine was brought out and we were pressed to take a glass.

There were wine cakes with it and I must say I found the wine delicious. I allowed Alvean to take a very small glass of it but when I had taken mine I wondered whether I had been wise, for it was certainly potent.

Great-Aunt Clara wished to hear all the news of Mount Mellyn; she was indeed a garrulous lady, and I guessed it was due to the fact that she lived a somewhat lonely life in her house on the moors.

The grandson appeared a handsome boy a little younger than Alvean and the pair of them went off to play, although I warned Alvean not to go too far away as we must be home before dark.

As soon as Alvean had left us I saw that Great-Aunt Clara was eager for a real gossip; and whether it was due to the fact that I had taken her potent dandelion wine or whether I believed her to be a link with Alice, I am not sure; but I found her conversation fascinating.

She spoke of Alice as I had not until now heard her spoken of with complete candour; and I quickly realised that from this gossipy lady I was going to discover a great deal more than I could from anyone else.

As soon as we were alone she said: ” And now tell me how things really are at Mount Mellyn.”

I raised my eyebrows as though I did not fully comprehend her meaning.

She went on: ” It was such a shock when poor Alice died. It was so sudden. Such a tragic thing to happen to such a young girl for she was little more than a girl.”

” Is that so?”

” Don’t tell me you haven’t heard what happened.”

“I know very little about it.”

” Alice and Geoffry Nansellock, you know. They went off together ..

eloped. And then this terrible accident. “

” I have heard that there was an accident.”

” I think of them—those two young people—quite often, in the dead of the night. And then I blame myself.”

I was astonished. I did not understand how this gentle talkative old lady could blame herself for Alice’s infidelity to her husband.

” One should never interfere in other people’s lives. Or should one?

What do you think, my dear? If one can be helpful”— ” Yes,” I said firmly, ” if one can be helpful I think one should be forgiven for interference. “

” But how is one to know whether one is being helpful or the reverse?”

” One can only do what one thinks is right.”

” But one might be doing right and yet be quite unhelpful?”

” Yes, I suppose so.”

” I think of her so much … my poor little niece. She was a sweet creature. But, shall I say, not equipped to face the cruelties of fate.”

” Oh, was she like that?”

” I can see that you. Miss Leigh, are so good for that poor child.

Alice would be so happy if she could see what you’ve done for her. The last time I saw her she was with her . with Connan. She was not nearly so happy . so relaxed as she is today. “

” I’m so glad of that. I am encouraging her to ride. I think that has done her a world of good.” I was loath to interrupt that flow of talk from which I might extract some fresh evidence about Alice. I was afraid that at any moment Alvean and the grandson would return, and I knew that in their presence there would be no confidences. ” You are telling me about Alvean’s mother. I am sure you have nothing with which to reproach yourself.”

” I wish I could believe that. It worries me sometimes. Perhaps I shouldn’t weary you. But you seem so sympathetic, and you are there, living in the house. You are looking after little Alvean like … like a mother. It makes me feel very grateful to you, my dear.”

” I am paid for doing it, you know.” I could not resist that remark, and I thought of the smile it would have brought to Peter Nansellock’s lips.

” There are some things in this world which cannot be bought. Love .. devotion … they are some of them. Alice stayed with me before her marriage. Here … in this house. It was so convenient, you see.

It was only a few hours’ ride from Mount Mellyn. It gave the young people a chance to know each other. “

” The young people?”

” The engaged pair.”

” Did they not know each other then?”

” The marriage had been arranged when they were in their cradles. She brought him a lot of property. They were well matched. Both rich, both of good families. Connan’s father was alive then and, you know, Connan was a wild boy with a will of his own. The feeling was that they should be married as soon as possible.”

” So he allowed this marriage to be arranged for him?”

” They both took it as a matter of course. Well, she stayed with me several months before the wedding. I loved her dearly.”

I thought of little Gilly and I said : “I think a great many people loved her dearly.”

Great-Aunt Clara nodded; and at that moment Alvean and the grandson came in.

” I want to show Alvean my drawings,” he announced.

” Well, go and get them,” said his grandmother. ” Bring them down and show her here.”

I believed that she realised she had talked a little too much and was afraid of her own garrulity. It was clear to me that she was the sort of woman who could never keep a secret; how could she when she was ready to confide secret family history to me, a stranger?

The grandson returned with his portfolio, and the children sat at the table. I went over to them and I was so proud of g Alvean’s attempts at drawing that I determined to speak to her father about that at the first opportunity.

Yet as I watched, I felt frustrated. I was sure that Great-Aunt Clara had been on the point of confiding something to me which was of the utmost importance.

Aunt Clara gave us luncheon and we left immediately after. We found our way back with the utmost care, but I was determined to ride out again, and that before long, to the house on the moors.

When I was strolling through the village one day I passed the little jeweller’s shop there. But perhaps that was scarcely the term to use when describing it. There were no valuable gems in the window; but a few silver brooches and plain gold rings, some engraved with the word Mizpah, or studded with semiprecious stones such as turquoises, topaz, and garnets. I guessed that the villagers bought their engagement and wedding rings here and that the jeweller made a living by doing repairs.

I saw in the window a brooch in the form of a whip. It was of silver, and quite tasteful, I decided, although it was by no means expensive.

I wanted to buy that whip for Alvean and give it to her the night before the horse show, telling her that it was to bring her luck.

I opened the door and went down the three steps into the shop.

Seated behind the counter was as. old man wearing steel-rimmed spectacles. He let his glasses fall to the tip of his nose as he peered at me.

” I want to see the brooch in the window,” I said” The silver one in the form of a whip.”

” Oh yes, Miss,” he said, ” I’ll show it to you with pleasure.”

He brought it from the window and handed it to me.

” Here,” he said, ” pin it on and have a look at it.” He indicated the little mirror on the counter. I obeyed him and decided that the brooch was neat, not gaudy, and in the best of taste.

As I was looking at it I noticed a tray of ornaments with little tickets attached to them. They were clearly jewellery which he had received for repair. Then I wondered whether this was the jeweller to whom Alice had brought her brooch last July.

The jeweller said to me: ” You’re from Mount Mellyn, Miss?”

” Yes,” I said; and I smiled encouragingly. I was becoming very ready to talk to anyone who I thought might have any information to offer me on this subject which appeared to obsess me. ” As a matter of fact I want to give the brooch to my pupil.”

Like most people in small villages he was very interested in those living around him.

” Ah,” be said, ” poor motherless little girl. It’s heartening to think she has a kind lady like yourself to look after her now.”

” I’ll take the brooch,” I told him.

” I’ll find a little box for it. A nice little box makes all the difference when it be a matter of a present, don’t you agree, Miss?”

” Most certainly.”

He bent down and from under the counter brought a small cardboard-box which he began to stuff with cotton-wool.

” Make a little nest for it. Miss,” he said with a smile.

I fancied that he was loth to let me go.

” Don’t see much of them from the Mount these days. Mrs. TreMellyn, her was often in.”

” Yes, I suppose so.”

” See a little trinket in the window and she’d buy it … sometimes for herself, sometimes for others. Why, she was in here the day she died.”

His voice had sunk to a whisper and I felt excitement grip me. I thought of Alice’s diary which was still in the concealed pocket of her habit.

” Really?” I said encouragingly.

He laid the brooch in the cotton-wool and looked at me. ” I thought ‘twas a little odd at the time. I remember it very clearly. She came in here and said to me : Have you got the y brooch done, Mr. Pastern? It’s very important that I should have it. I’m anxious to wear it tomorrow. I’m going to a dinner party at Mr. and Mrs. Trelanders’, and Mrs. Trelander gave me that brooch as a Christmas present so you see it’s most important I should wear it to show her I appreciate it. “

” His eyes were puzzled as they looked into mine. ” She were a lady who talked like that. She’d tell you where she was going, why she wanted a thing. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard she’d left home that very evening. Didn’t seem possible that she could have been telling me about the dinner party she was going to the next day, you see. “

” No,” I said, ” it was certainly very strange.”

” You see, Miss, there was no need for her to say anything to me like.

If she’d said it to some it might seem as though she was trying to pull the wool over their eyes. But why should she say such a thing to me. Miss? That’s what I’ve been wondering. Sometimes I think of it . and still wonder. “

” I expect there’s an answer,” I said. ” Perhaps you misunderstood her.”

He shook his head. He did not believe that he had misunderstood. Nor did I. I had seen the entry in her diary and what I had read there confirmed what the jeweller had said.

Celestine Nansellock rode over next day to see Alvean. We were about to go for our riding lesson, and she insisted on coming with us.

“Now, Alvean,” I said, “is the time to have a little rehearsal. See if you can surprise Miss Nansellock as you hope to surprise your father.”

We were going to practise jumping, and we rode down through the Mellyn village and beyond.

Celestine was clearly astonished by Alvean’s progress.

” But you’ve done wonders with her, Miss Leigh.”

We watched Alvean canter round the field. ” I hope her father is going to be pleased. She has entered for one of the events in the show.”

” He’ll be delighted, I’m sure.”

” Please don’t say anything to him beforehand. We do want it to be a surprise.”

Celestme smiled at me. ” He’ll be very grateful to you. Miss Leigh. I’m sure of that. “

” I’m counting on his being rather pleased.”

I was conscious of her eyes upon me as she smiled at me benignly. She said suddenly: ” Oh, Miss Leigh, about my brother Peter. I did want to speak to you confidentially about that matter of Jacinth.”

I flushed faintly, and I was annoyed with myself for doing so.

” I know he gave you the horse and you returned it as too valuable a gift.”

” Too valuable a gift to accept,” I answered, ” and too expensive for me to be able to maintain.”

” Of course. I’m afraid he is very thoughtless. But he is the most generous man alive. He’s rather afraid he has offended you.”

” Please tell him I’m not offended, and if he thinks awhile be will understand why I can’t accept such a gift.”

“I explained to him, He admires you very much, Miss Leigh, but there was an ulterior motive behind the gift. He wanted a good home for Jacinth. You know that he plans to leave England.”

” He did mention it.”

” I expect he will sell some of the horses. I shall keep a couple for myself, but there is no point in keeping an expensive stable with only myself at the house.”

” No, I suppose not.”

” He saw you on Jacinth and thinks you’d be a worthy mistress for her. That was why he wanted you to have her. He’s very fond of that mare. ”

” I see.”

” Miss Leigh, you would like to possess a horse like that?”

” Who wouldn’t?”

” Suppose I asked Connan if it could be taken into his stables and kept there for you to ride. How would that be?”

I replied emphatically: ” It is most kind of you, Miss Nansellock, and I do appreciate your desire and that of your brother to please me. But I do not wish for any special favours here. Mr. TreMellyn has a full and adequate stable for the needs of us all. I should be very much against asking for special favours for myself.”

” I see,” she said, ” that you are very determined and very proud.”

She leaned forward and touched my hand in a very friendly manner.

There was a faint mist of tears in her eyes. She was touched by my position, and understood how desperately I clung to my pride because it was my only possession.

I thought her kind and considerate, and I could understand why Alice had made a friend of her. I felt that I too could easily become her friend, for she had never made me in the least conscious of my social position in the house.

One day, I thought, I’ll tell her what I’ve discovered about Alice.

But not yet. I was, as her brother had said, as spiky as a hedgehog. I did not think for a moment that I should be rebuffed by Celestine Nansellock, but Just at this time I was not going to run any risk.

Alvean joined us, and Celestine complimented her on her riding. Then we went back to the house, and tea, over which I presided, was served in the punch room.

I thought what a happy afternoon that was.

Connan TreMellyn came back the day before the show. I was glad he had not returned before, because I was afraid that Alvean might betray her excitement.

I was entered for one of the early events in which points were scored, particularly for jumping. It was what they called a mixed event which meant that men and women competed together.

Tapperty, who knew I was going to enter, wouldn’t hear of my riding on Dion.

” Why, Miss,” he said, the day before the show, ” if you’d have took Jacinth when she was offered you, you would have got first prize. That mare be a winner and so would you be, Miss, on her back. Old Dion, he’s a good fellow, but he ain’t no prize winner. How’d you say to taking Royal Rover?”

” What if Mr. TreMellyn objected?”

Tapperty winked.

“Nay, he’d not object. He’ll be riding n out to the show on May Morning, so old Royal ‘un be free. I’ll tell ‘ee what, just suppose master was to say to me Saddle up Royal Rover for me, Tapperty.” Right, then I’d saddle the Rover for him and it would be May Morning for you, Miss. Nothing ‘ud please master more than for to see his horse win a prize. “

I was anxious to show off before Connan TreMellyn and I agreed to Tapperty’s suggestion. After all, I was teaching his daughter to ride and that meant that I could, with the approval of his head stable man, make my selection from the stables.

The night before the show I presented Alvean with the brooch.

She was extremely delighted.

“It’s a whip!” she cried.

” It will pin your cravat,” I said, ” and I hope bring you luck.”

” It will. Miss. I know it will.”

” Well, don’t rely on it too much. Remember luck only comes to those who deserve it.” I quoted the beginning of an old rhyme which Father used to say to us.

” Your head and your heart keep boldly up, Your chin and your heels keep down.” I went on:

” And when you take your jump together … go with Prince.”

” I’ll remember.”

“Excited?”

” It seems so long in coming.”

” It’ll come fast enough.”

That night when I went in to say good night to her I sat on her bed and we talked about the show.

I was a little anxious about her, because she was too excited, and I tried to calm her down. I told her she must go to sleep for if she did not she would not be fresh for the morning.

” But how does one sleep, Miss,” she asked, ” when sleep won’t come?”

I realised then the magnitude of what I had done. A few months before, when I had come to this house, this girl had been afraid to mount a horse; now she was looking forward to competing at the horse show.

That was all well and good. I would have preferred her interest not to have been centred so wholeheartedly on her father. It was his approval which meant so much to her.

She was not only eager; she was apprehensive, so desperately did she long for his admiration.

I went to my room and came back with a book of Mr. Longfellow’s poems.

I sat down by her bed and began to read to her, for I knew of nothing to turn the mind to peace than his narrative poem, ” Hiawatha.”

I often quoted it when I was trying to sleep and then I would feel myself torn from the events of this world in which I lived and in my imagination I would wander along through the primeval forests with the “rustlings of great rivers … and their wild reverberations.”

The words flowed from my lips. I knew I was conjuring up visions for Alvean. She had forgotten the show . her fears and her hopes. She was with the little Hiawatha sitting at the feet of the good Nokomis and—she slept.

I woke up on the day of the horse show to find the mist had penetrated my room. I got out of bed and went to the window. Little wisps of it encircled the palm trees and the feathery leaves of the evergreen pines were decorated with little drops of moisture.

” I hope the mist lifts before the afternoon,” I said to myself.

But all through the morning it persisted, and there were anxious looks and whispers throughout the house where everyone was thinking of the show. Most of the servants were going. They always did. Kitty told me, because the master had special interest in it as one of the judges, and Billy Trehay and some of the stable boys were entrants.

“It do put master in a good mood to see his horses win,” said Kitty: ” but they say he’s always harder on his own than on others.”

Immediately after luncheon Alvean and I set out; she was riding Black Prince and I was on Royal Rover. It was exhilarating to be on a good horse, and I felt as excited as Alvean; I fear I was just as eager to shine in the eyes of Connan TreMellyn as she was.

The show was being held in a big field close to the village church, and when we arrived the crowds were already gathering.

Alvean and I parted company when we reached the field and I discovered that the event in which I was competing was one of the first.

The show was intended to start at two-fifteen, but there was the usual delay, and at twenty past we were still waiting to begin.

The mist had lifted slightly, but it was a leaden day; the sky was like a grey blanket and everything seemed to have accumulated a layer of moisture. The sea smell was strong but the waves were silent to-day and the cry of the gulls was more melancholy than ever.

Connan arrived with the other judges; there were three of them, all local worthies. Connan, I saw, had come on May Morning, as I expected, since I had been given Royal Rover.

The village band struck up a traditional air and everyone stood still and sang.

It was very impressive, I thought, to hear those words sung with such fervour in that misty field:

” And shall they scorn Tre Pol and Pen, And shall Trelawney die~> Then twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why.”

A proud song, I thought, for an insular people; and they stood at attention as they sang. I noticed little Gillyflower standing there, singing with the rest, and I was surprised to see her; she was with Daisy and I hoped the girl would look after her.

She saw me and I waved to her, but she lowered her eyes at once, yet I could see that she was smiling to herself and I was quite pleased.

A rider came close to me and a voice said : ” Well, if it is not Miss Leigh, herself!”

I turned and saw Peter Nansellock; he was mounted on Jacinth.

” Good afternoon,” I said, and my eyes lingered on the perfections of Jacinth.

I was wearing a placard with a number on my back which had been put there by one of the organisers.

” Don’t tell me,” said Peter Nansellock, ” that you and I are competitors in this first event.”

” Are you in it then?”

He turned, and I saw the placard on his back.

” I haven’t a hope,” I said.

” Against me?”

” Against Jacinth,” I answered.

” Miss Leigh, you could have been riding her.”

” You must have been mad to do what you did. You set the stables talking.”

” Who cares for stable boys?”

” I do.”

“Then you are not being your usual sensible self.”

“A governess has to care for the opinions of all and sundry.”

” You are not an ordinary governess.”

” Do you know, Mr. Nansellock,” I said lightly, ” I believe all the governesses in your life were no ordinary governesses. If they had been, perhaps they would have had no place in your life.”

I gave Royal Rover a gentle touch on the flank and he responded immediately.

I did not see Peter again until he was competing. He went before I did. I watched him ride round the field. He and Jacinth seemed like one animal. Like a centaur, I thought. Were they the creatures with the head and shoulders of a man and the body of a horse?

” Oh, perfect,” I explained aloud as I watched him take the Jumps and canter gracefully round the field. And who couldn’t, I said to myself maliciously, on a mare like that!

A round of applause followed him as he finished his turn.

Mine did not come until some time later.

I saw Connan TreMellyn in the judges’ stand. And I whispered: ” Royal Rover, help me. I want you to beat Jacinth. I want you to win this prize. I want to show Connan TreMellyn that there is one thing I can do. Help me. Royal Rover.”

The sensitive ears seemed to prick up as Royal Rover moved daintily forward and I knew that he heard me, and would respond to the appeal in my voice, ” Come on. Rover,” I whispered. ” We can do it.”

And we went round as faultlessly, I hoped, as Jacinth had. I heard the applause burst out as I finished, and walked my horse away.

We waited until the rest of the competitors were finished and the results were called. I was glad that they were announced at the end of each event. People were more interested immediately after they had seen a performance. The practice of announcing all winners at the end of the meeting I had always thought to be a sort of anticlimax.

” This one is a tie,” Connan was saying. ” Two competitors scored full marks in this one. It’s most unusual, but I am happy to say that the winners are a lady and a gentleman: Miss Martha Leigh on Royal Rover, and Mr. Peter Nansellock on Jacinth.”

We trotted up to take our prizes.

Connan said: ” The prize is a silver rose bowl. How can we split it?

Obviously we cannot do that so the lady gets the bowl. “

” Of course,” said Peter.

” But you get a silver spoon,” Connan told him. ” Consolation for having tied with a lady.”

We accepted our prizes, and as Connan gave me mine he was smiling, very well pleased.

” Good show. Miss Leigh. I did not know anyone could get so much out of Royal Rover.”

I patted Royal Rover and said, more for his hearing than anyone else’s: “I couldn’t have had a better partner.”

Then Peter and I trotted off; I with my rose bowl, he with his spoon.

Peter said: ” If you had been on Jacinth you would have been the undisputed winner.”

” I should still have had to compete against you on something else.”

” Jacinth would win any race … just look at her. Isn’t she perfection? Never mind, you got the rose bowl.”

” I shall always feel that it is not entirely mine.”

” When you arrange your roses you will aways think, Part of this belonged to that man … what was his name? He was always charming to me, but I was a little add with him. I’m sorry now.”

” I rarely forget people’s names, and I feel I have nothing to regret in my conduct towards you.”

” There is a way out of this rose bowl situation. Suppose we set up house together. It could have a place of honour there. Ours,” we could say, and both feel happy about it. “

I was angry at this flippancy, and I said: ” We should, I am sure, feel far from happy about everything else.”

And I rode away.

I wanted to be near the Judges’ stand when Alvean appeared. I wanted to watch Connan’s face as his daughter performed. I wanted to be dose when she took her prize—which I was sure she would, for she was eager to win and she had worked hard. The jumps should offer no difficulty to her.

The elementary jumping contest for eight-year-olds began and I was feverishly impatient, waiting for Alvean’s turn as I watched those little girls and boys go through their performances. But there was no Alvean. The contest was over and the results announced.

I felt sick with disappointment. So she had panicked at the last moment. My work had been in vain. When the great moment came her fears had returned.

When the prizes were being given I went in search of Alvean, but I could not find her, and as the more advanced jumping contest for the eight-year-old group was about to begin, it occurred to me that she must have gone back to the house. I pictured her abject misery because after all our talk, all our practice, her courage had failed her at the critical moment.

I wanted to get away, for now my own petty triumph meant nothing to me, and I wanted to find Alvean quickly, to comfort her if need be, and I felt sure she would need my comfort.

I rode back to Mount Mellyn, hung up my saddle and bridle, gave Royal Rover a quick rub-down and a drink, and left him munching an armful of hay in his stall while I went into the house.

The back door was unlatched and I went in. The house seemed very quiet. I guessed that all but Mrs. Polgrey were at the horse show.

Mrs. Polgrey would probably be in her room having her afternoon doze.

I went up to my room and called Alvean as I went.

There was no answer so I hurried through the school room to her room which was deserted. Perhaps she had not come back to the house. I then remembered that I had not seen Prince in the stables. But then I had forgotten to look in his stall.

I came back to my room and stood uncertainly at the window. I thought, I’ll go back to the show. She’s probably still there.

And as I stood at the window I knew that someone was in Alice’s apartments. I was not sure how I knew. It may only have been a shadow across the window-pane. But I was certain that someone was there. “

Without thinking very much of what I would do when I discovered who was there I ran from my room, through the gallery to Alice’s rooms. My riding-boots must have made a clatter along the gallery. I threw open the door of the room and shouted: ” Who is here? Who is it?”

No one was in the room, but I saw in that fleeting second, the communicating door between the two rooms dose.

I had a feeling that it might be Alvean who was there, and I was sure that Alvean’needed me at this moment. I had to find her, and any fear I might have had, disappeared. I ran across the dressing room and opened the door of the bedroom. I looked round the room. I ran to the curtains and felt them. There was no one there. Then I ran to the other door and opened it. I was in another dressing room and the communicating door similar to that in Alice’s was open. I went through and immediately I knew that I was in Connan’s bedroom for I saw a cravat, which he had been wearing that morning, flung on the dressing table. I saw his dressing gown and slippers.

The sight of these made me blush and realise that I was trespassing in a part of the house where I had no right to be.

But someone other than Conhan had been there before me. Who was it?

I went swiftly across the bedroom, opened the door and found myself in the gallery.

There was no sign of anyone there so I went slowly back to my room.

Who had been in Alice’s room? Who was it who haunted the place?

” Alice,” I said aloud. ” Is it you, Alice?”

Then I went down to the stables. I wanted to get back to the show and find Alvean.

I had saddled Royal Rover and was riding out of the stable yard when I saw Billy Trehay hurrying towards the house.

He said: “Oh Miss, there’s been an accident. A terrible accident.”

“What?” I stammered.

” It’s Miss Alvean. She took a toss in the jumping.”

” But she wasn’t in the jumping!” I cried.

” Yes she were. In the eight-year-olds. Advanced class. It was the high jump. Prince stumbled and fell. They went rolling over and over…”

For a moment I lost control of myself; I covered my face with my hands and cried out in protest.

” They were looking for you. Miss,” he said.

” Where is she then?”

” She were down there in the field. They’m afraid to move her. They wrapped her up and now they’m waiting for Dr. Pengelly to come. They think she may have broken some bones. Her father’s with her. He kept saying, Where’s Miss Leigh?” And I saw you leave so I came after you. I think perhaps you’d better be getting down there. Miss . since he was asking for you like. “

I turned away and rode as fast as I dared down the hill into the village, and as I rode I prayed, and scolded:

” Oh God, let her be all right. Oh Alvean, you little fool! It would have been enough to take the simple jumps. That would have pleased him enough. You could have done the high jumps next year. Alvean, my poor, poor child.” And then: “It’s his fault. It’s all his fault. If he had been a human parent this wouldn’t have happened.”

And so I came to the field. I shall never forget what I saw there:

Alvean lying unconscious on the grass, and the group round her and others standing about. There would be no more competitions that day.

For a moment I was terrified that she had been killed.

Connan’s face was stern as be looked at me.

“Miss Leigh,” he said, “I’m glad you’ve come. There’s been an accident. Alvean …”

I ignored him and knelt down beside her.

“Alvean … my dear …” I murmured.

She opened her eyes then. She did not look like my arrogant little pupil. She was just a lost and bewildered child.

But she smiled.

“Don’t go away …” she said.

“No, I’ll stay here.”

” You did go … before …” she murmured, and I had to bend low to catch her words.

And then I knew. She was not speaking to Martha Leigh, the governess.

She was speaking to Alice.

Dr. Pengelly had arrived on the field and had diagnosed a broken tibia; but he could not say if any further damage had been done. He set the fractured bone and drove Alvean back to Mount Mellyn in his carriage while Connan and I rode back together in silence.

Alvean was taken to her room and given a sedative by the doctor.

” Now,” he said, ” there is nothing we can do but wait. I’ll come back again in a few hours’ time. It may be that the child is suffering acute shock. In the meantime we will keep her warm and let her sleep. She should sleep for several hours, and at the end of that time we shall know how deeply she has suffered from this shock.”

When the doctor had left, Connan said to me: “Miss Leigh, I want to have a talk with you. Come to the punch room … now, will you please.”

I followed him there and he went on:

” There is nothing we can do but wait. Miss Leigh. We must try to be calm.”

I realised that he could never have seen me agitated as I was now, and he had probably considered me incapable of such deep feeling.

Impulsively I said: ” I find it hard to be as calm about my charge as you are about your daughter, Mr. TreMellyn.”

I was so frightened and worried that I wanted to blame someone for what had happened so I blamed him.

” Whatever made the child attempt such a thing?” he demanded.

” You made her,” I retorted. ” You!”

” I! But I had no idea that she was so advanced in her riding.”

I realised later that I was on the verge of hysteria. I believed that Alvean might have done herself some terrible injury and I felt almost certain that a child of her temperament would never want to ride again. I believed I had been wrong in my methods. I should not have tried to overcome her fear of horses; I had tried to win my way into her affections by showing her the way to win those of her father.

I could not rid myself of a terrible sense of guilt, and I was desperately trying to. I was saying to myself. This is a house of tragedy. Who are you to meddle in the lives of these people? What are you trying to do? To change Alvean? To change her father? To discover the truth about Alice? What do you think you are? God?

But I wouldn’t blame myself entirely. I was looking for a scapegoat. I was saying to myself. He is to blame. If he had been different, none of this would have happened. I’m sure of that.

I had lost control of my feelings and on the rare occasions when people like myself do that, they usually do it more competely than those who are prone to hysterical outbursts.

” No,” I cried out, ” of course you had no idea that she was so advanced. How could you when you had never shown the slightest interest in the child? She was breaking her heart through your neglect. It was for that reason that she attempted this thing of which she was not capable.”

“My dear Miss Leigh,” he murmured.

“My dear Miss Leigh.” And he was looking at me in complete bewilderment.

I thought to myself. What do I care! I shall be dismissed, but in any case I have failed. I had hoped to do the impossible to bring this man out of his own selfishness to care a little for his lonely daughter. And what have I done made a complete mess of it and perhaps maimed the child for life. A fine one I was to complain of the conduct of others.

But I continued to blame him, and I no longer cared what I said.

” When I came here,” I went on, ” it did not take me long to understand the state of affairs. That poor motherless child was starved … Oh, I know she had her broth and her bread and butter at regular intervals. But there is another starvation besides that of the body. She was starved of the affection which she might expect from a parent and, as you see, she was ready to risk her life to win it.”

” Miss Leigh, please, I beg of you, do be calm, do be reasonable. Are you telling me that Alvean did that …”

But I would not let him speak. ” She did that for you. She thought it would please you. She has been practising for weeks.”

” I see,” he said. Then he look his handkerchief from his pocket and wiped my eyes. ” You do not realise it. Miss Leigh,” he went on almost tenderly, ” but there are tears on your cheeks.”

I took the handkerchief from him and angrily wiped my tears away.

” They are tears of anger,” I said.

” And of sorrow. Dear Miss Leigh, I think you care very much for Alvean.”

” She is a child,” I said, ” and it was my Job to care for her. God knows, there are few others to do it.”

” I see,” he answered, ” that I have been behaving in a very reprehensible manner.”

” How could you … if you had any feeling? Your own daughter! She lost her mother. Don’t you see that because of that she needed special care?”

Then he said a surprising thing: ” Miss Leigh, you came here to teach Alvean, but I think you have taught me a great deal too.”

I looked at him in amazement; I was holding his hand kerchief a few inches from my tear-stained face; and at that moment Celestine Nansellock came in.

She looked at me in some astonishment, but only for a second. Then she burst out: ” What is this terrible thing I’ve heard?”

” There’s been a accident, Celeste,” said Connan. ” Alvean was thrown.”

“Oh … no!” Celestine uttered a piteous cry.

“And what … and where … ?”

” She’s in her room now,” Connan explained. ” Pengelly’s set the leg.

Poor child. At the moment she is asleep. He gave her something to make her sleep. He’s coming again in a few hours’ time. “

” But how badly … ?”

” He’s not sure. But I’ve seen accidents like this before. I think she’ll be all right.”

I was not sure whether he meant that or whether he was trying to soothe Celestine who was so upset. I felt drawn towards her; she was the only person, I believed, who really cared about Alvean.

” Poor Miss Leigh is very distressed,” said Connan. ” I think she fancies it is her fault. I do want to assure her that I don’t think that at all.”

My fault! But how could I be blamed for teaching the child to ride?

And having taught her, what harm was there in her entering for a competition? No, it was his fault, I wanted to shout. She would have been content to do what she was capable of, but for him.

I said with defiance in my voice : ” Alvean was so anxious to impress her father that she undertook more than she could do. I am sure that had she believed her father would be content to see her victorious in the elementary event she would not have attempted the advanced.”

Celestine had sat down and covered her face with her hands. I thought fleetingly of the occasion when I had seen her in the churchyard, kneeling by Alice’s grave. I thought, Poor Celestine, she loves Alvean as her own child, because she has none of her own and perhaps believes she never will have.

” We can only wait and see,” said Connan.

I rose and said : ” There is no point in my remaining here. I will go to my room.”

But Connan put out a hand and said almost authoritatively:

” No, stay here, Miss Leigh. Stay with us. You care for her deeply, I know.”

I looked down at my riding habit Alice’s riding habit and I said: ” I think I should change.”

It seemed that in that moment he looked at me in a new light and perhaps so did Celestine. If they did not look at my face I must have appeared to be remarkably like Alice.

I knew it was important that I change my clothes, for in my grey cotton dress with its severe bodice I should be the governess once more and that would help me to control my feelings.

Connan nodded. He said : ” But come back when you’ve changed, Miss Leigh. We have to comfort each other, and I want you to be here when the doctor returns.”

So I went to my room and I took off Alice’s riding habit and put on my own grey cotton.

I was right. The cotton did help to restore my equilibrium. I began to wonder, as I buttoned the bodice, what I had said, in my outburst, to Connan TreMellyn.

The mirror showed me a face that was ravaged by grief and anxiety, eyes which burned with anger and resentment, and a mouth that was tremulous with fear.

I sent for hot water. Daisy wanted to talk, but she saw that I was too upset to do so and she went quickly away.

I bathed my face and when I had done so I went down to the punch-room and rejoined Connan and Celestine, there to await the coming of Dr. Pengelly.

It seemed a long time before the doctor returned. Mrs. Polgrey made a pot of strong tea and Connan, Celestine and I sat together drinking it. I did not feel astonished then, but I did later, because the accident seemed to have made them both forget that I was merely the governess. But perhaps I mean it made Connan forget; Celestine had always treated me without that condecension which I thought I had discerned in others.

Connan seemed to have forgotten my outburst and treated me with a courtly consideration and a new gentleness. I believed he was anxious that I should not blame myself in any way, and he knew that the reason I had turned on him so vehemently was because I wondered whether I had been at fault.

” She’ll get over this,” he said. ” And she’ll want to ride again.

Why, when I was a little older than herself I had an accident which I’m sure was worse than this one. I got it in the collar-bone and was unable to ride for weeks. I could scarcely wait to get back on a horse. “

Celestine shivered. ” I shall never have a moment’s peace if she rides again after this.”

” Oh Celeste, you would wrap her in cotton wool. And then what would happen? She would go out and catch her death of cold. You must not coddle children too much. After all, they’ve got to face the world.

They must be prepared for it in some way. What does the expert have to say to that? “

He was looking at me anxiously. I knew he was trying to keep up our spirits. He knew how deeply Celestine and I felt about this, and he was trying to be kind.

I said : ” I believe one shouldn’t coddle. But if children are really set against something I don’t think they should be forced to do it.”

” But she was not forced to ride.”

” She did it most willingly,” I answered. ” But I cannot be sure whether she did it from a love of riding or from an intense desire to please you.”

” Well,” he said almost lightly, ” is it not an excellent thing that a child should seek to please a parent?”

” But it should not be necessary to risk a life for the sake of a smile.” ‘| My anger was rising again and my fingers gripped the cotton of my skirt as though to remind me that I was not in Alice’s riding habit now. I was the governess in my cotton gown, and it was not for me to press forward my opinions.

Both Celestine and Connan were surprised at my remark, and I went on quickly: ” For instance, Alvean’s talents may lie in another direction. I think she has artistic ability. She has done some good drawings. Mr. TreMellyn, I have been going to ask you for some time whether you would consider letting her have drawing lessons.”

There was a tense silence in the room and I wondered why they both looked so startled.

I blundered on: ” I am sure there is great talent there, and I do not feel that it should be ignored.”

Connan said slowly: ” But Miss Leigh, you are here to teach my daughter. Why should it be necessary to engage other teachers?”

” Because,” I replied boldly, ” I believe she has a special talent. I believe it would be an added interest in her life if she were to be given drawing lessons. These should be given by a specialist in the art. She is good enough for that. I’m merely a governess, Mr. TreMellyn, I am not an artist as well. “

He said rather gruffly: ” Well, we shall have to go into this at some time.”

He changed the subject, and shortly afterwards the doctor arrived.

I waited outside in the corridor while Connan and Celestine were with Alvean and the doctor.

A hundred images of disaster crowded into my mind. I imagined that she died of her injuries. I saw myself leaving the place, never to return.

If I did that I should feel that my life had been incomplete in some way. I realised that if I had to go away I should be a very unhappy woman. Then I thought of her, maimed for life, more difficult than she

had been previously, a wretched and unhappy little girl; and myself devoting my life to her. It was a gloomy picture.

Celestine joined me.

” This suspense is terrible,” she said. ” I wonder whether we ought to get another doctor. Dr. Pengelly is sixty. I am afraid …”

” He seemed efficient,” I said.

” I want the best for her. If anything happens to her …”

She was biting her lips in anguish, and I thought how strange it was that she, who always seemed so calm about everything else, should be so emotional over Alice and her daughter.

I wanted to put my arm about her and comfort her, but of course, remembering my position, I did no such thing.

Doctor Pengelly came out with Connan, and the doctor was smiling.

” Injuries,” he said, ” a fractured tibia. Beyond that … there’s very little wrong.”

” Oh, thank God!” cried Celestine, and I echoed her words.

” A day or so and she’ll be feeling better. It’ll just be a matter of mending that fracture. Children’s bones mend easily. There’s nothing for you two ladies to worry about.”

” Can we see her?” asked Celestine eagerly.

” Yes, of course you can. She’s awake now, and she asked for Miss Leigh. I’m going to give her another dose in half an hour, and that will ensure a good night’s sleep. You’ll see a. difference in her in the morning.”

We went into the room. Alvean was lying on, her back looking very ill, poor child; but she gave us a wan smile when she saw us.

” Hallo, Miss,” she said. ” Hallo, Aunt Celestine.”

Celestine knelt by the bed, took her hand and covered it with kisses.

I stood on the other side of the bed and the child’s eyes were on me.

” I didn’t do it,” she said.

” Well, it was a good try.”

Connan was standing at the foot of the bed.

I went on: ” Your father was proud of you.”

” He’ll think I was silly,” she said.

” No, he doesn’t,” I cried vehemently. ” He is here to tell you so.”

Connan came round to the side of the bed and stood beside me.

” He’s proud of you,” I said. ” He told me so. He said it didn’t matter that you fell. He said all that mattered was that you tried; and you’d do it next time. “

“Did he? Did he?”

” Yes, he did,” I cried; and there was an angry note in my voice because he still said nothing and the child was waiting for him to confirm my words.

Then he spoke. ” You did splendidly, Alvean. I was proud of you.”

A faint smile touched those pale lips. Then she murmured :

” Miss … oh Miss …” And then: ” Don’t go away, will you. Don’t you go away.”

I sank down on my knees then. I took her hand and kissed it. The tears were on my cheeks again.

I cried: ” I’ll stay, Alvean. I’ll stay with you always …”

I looked up and saw Celestine watching me from the other side of the bed. I was aware of Connan, standing beside me. Then I amended those words, and the governess in me spoke. ” I’ll stay as long as I’m wanted,” I said firmly.

Alvean was satisfied.

When she was sleeping we left her and, as I was about to go to my room, Connan said : ” Come into my library a moment with us. Miss Leigh. The doctor wants to discuss the case with you.”

So I went into his library with him, Celestine and the doctor, and we talked of the nursing of Alvean.

Celestine said; “I shall come over every day. In fact I wonder, Connan, whether I won’t come over and stay while she’s ill. It might make things easier.”

“You ladies must settle that,” answered Dr. Pengelly. ” Keep the child amused. We don’t want her getting depressed while those bones are knitting together.”

“We’ll keep her amused,” I said.

“Any special diet, Doctor?”

” For a day or so, light invalid foods. Steamed fish, milk puddings, custards and so on. But after a few days let her have what she wants.”

I was almost gay, and this swift reversal of feelings made me slightly lightheaded.

I listened to the doctor’s instructions and Connan’s assurance that there was no need for Celestine to stay at the house; he was sure Miss Leigh would manage and it would be wonderfully comforting for Miss Leigh to know that in any emergency she could always ask for Celestine’s help.

” Well Connan,” said Celestine, ” perhaps it’s as well. People talk.

And if I stayed here . Oh, people are so ridiculous. But they are always ready to gossip. “

I saw the point. If Celestine lived at Mount Mellyn, people would begin to couple her name with Connan’s; whereas the fart that I, an employee of the same age, lived in the house aroused no comment. I was not of the same social standing.

Connan laughed and said: ” How did you come over, Celeste?”

” I rode over on Speller.”

” Right. I’ll ride back with you.”

” Oh, thank you, Connan. It’s nice of you. But I can go alone if you’d rather …”

“Nonsense! I’m coming.” He turned to me.

“As for you, Miss Leigh, you look exhausted. I should advise you to go to bed and have a good night’s sleep.”

I was sure I could not rest, and my expression must have implied this for the doctor said: ” I’ll give you a draught, Miss Leigh. Take it five minutes before retiring for the night. I think I can promise you a good night’s sleep.”

” Thank you,” I said appreciatively, for I suddenly realised how exhausted I was.

I believed that tomorrow I should wake up my usual calm self, able to cope with whatever new situation should be the result of all that had happened today.

I went to my room, where I found a supper tray waiting for me. It contained a wing of cold chicken, appetising enough on most occasions, but tonight I had no appetite.

I toyed with it for a while and ate a few mouthfuls, but I was too upset to eat.

I thought it would be an excellent idea to take Dr. Pengelly’s sleeping draught and retire for the night.

I was about to do so when there was a knock on my door.

” Come in,” I called; and Mrs. Polgrey came. She looked distraught. No wonder, I thought. Who in this household isn’t? ;” It’s terrible,” she began.

But I cut in quickly: ” She’ll be all right, Mrs. Polgrey. The doctor said so.”

” Oh yes, I heard the news. It’s Gilly, Miss. I’m worried about her.”

“Gilly!”

” She didn’t come back from the show. Miss. I haven’t seen her since this afternoon.”

” Oh, she’s wandering about somewhere, I expect. I wonder if she saw.”

” I can’t understand it, Miss. I can’t understand her being at the show. She’s afeared of going near the horses. You could have knocked me down with a feather when I heard she was there. And now … she’s not come in.”

” But she does wander off alone, doesn’t she?”

” Yes, but she’ll always be in for her tea. I don’t know what can have become of her.”

” Has the house been searched?”

” Yes, Miss. I’ve looked everywhere. Kitty and Daisy have helped me. So’s Polgrey. The child’s not in the house. “

I said: ” I’ll come and help look for her.”

So instead of going to bed I joined in the search for Gillyflower.

I was very worried because on this day of tragedy I was prepared for anything to happen. What could have happened to little Gilly? I visualised a thousand things. I thought she might have wandered on to the beach and been caught by the tide, and I pictured her little body thrown up by the waves in Mellyn Cove as her mother’s had been eight years ago.

That was morbid. No, Gilly had gone wandering and had fallen asleep somewhere. I remembered that I had seen her often in the woods. But she would not be lost if she were in the woods. She knew every inch of them.

I nevertheless made my way to the woods, calling ” Gilly! Gilly!” as I went; and the mist, which was rising again with the coming of evening, seemed to catch my voice and muffle it as though it were cotton wool.

I searched those woods thoroughly because my intuition told me that she was there, and that she was not lost but hiding.

I was right. I came across her lying in a clearing surrounded by small conifers.

I had seen her in this spot once or twice and I guessed it was a haven to her.

“Gilly!” I called.

“Gilly!” And as soon as she heard my voice she sprang to her feet. She was poised to run but she hesitated when I called to her: ” Gilly, it’s all right. I’m here all alone and I won’t hurt you.”

She looked like a wild fairy child, her extraordinary white hair hanging damply about her shoulders.

” Why, Gilly,” I said, ” You’ll catch cold, lying on that damp grass.

Why are you hiding, Gilly? “

Her big eyes watched my face, and I knew that it was fear of something which had driven her to this refuge in the woods.

If only she would talk to me! I thought. If only she would explain.

” Gilly,” I said, ” we’re friends, aren’t we? You know that. I’m your friend as Madam was.”

She nodded and the fear slipped from her face. I thought, she has seen me in Alice’s well-cut riding clothes and, I believe, in her confused little mind she had bracketed us together in some way.

I put my arm about her; her dress was damp and I could see the mist on her pale brows and lashes.

” Why, Gilly, you are cold.”

She allowed me to cuddle her. I said : ” Come on, Gilly, we’re going back. Your grand mamma is very anxious. She is wondering what has become of you.”

She allowed me to lead her from the clearing, but I was aware of the reluctant drag of her feet.

I kept my arm firmly about her, and I said : ” You were at the horse show this afternoon.”

She turned to me and as she buried her face against me, her little hands gripped the doth of my dress. I was conscious of her trembling.

Then in a flash of understanding I began to see what had happened.

This child, like Alvean, was terrified of horses. Of course she was.

Had she not been almost trampled to death by one?

I believed that, as Alvean had been suffering from temporary shock, so was this child; but the shock which had come to her was of longer duration, and she had never known anyone who had been able to help her fight the darkness which had descended upon her.

In that misty wood I felt like a woman who has a mission. I was not going to turn my face from a poor child who needed help.

She was suffering from a return of that earlier shock. This afternoon she had seen Alvean beneath a horse’s hoofs as she herself had been after all it had happened only four years ago.

At that moment I heard the sound of horse’s hoofs in the wood, and I shouted: ” Hallo, I’ve found her.”

” Hallo! Coming, Miss Leigh.” And I was exhilarated almost unbearably so because that was Connan’s voice.

I guessed that he had returned from Mount Widden to discover that Gilly was lost, and that he had Joined the search party. Perhaps he knew that I had come to the woods and decided to join me.

He came into sight and Gilly shrank closer to me, keeping her face hidden.

” She’s here,” I called. He came dose to us and I went on:

” She is exhausted, poor child. Take her up with you.”

He leaned forward to take her, but she cried out: ” No! No!”

He was astonished to hear her speak, but I was not. I had already discovered that in moments of stress she did so.

I said: ” Gilly. Go up there with the master. I’ll walk beside you and hold your hand.”

She shook her head.

I went on: ” Look! This is May Morning. She wants to carry you, because she knows you’re tired.”

Gilly’s eyes turned to look at May Morning, and, in the fear I saw there, was the due.

” Take her,” I said to Connan, and he stooped and swung her up in his arms and set her in front of him.

She tried to fight, but I kept on talking to her soothingly. ” You’re safe up there. And we’ll get back more quickly. You’ll find a nice bowl of bread and milk waiting for you, and then there’ll be your warm cosy bed. I’ll hold your hand all the time and walk beside you.”

She no longer struggled but kept her hand in mine.

And so ended that strange day, with myself and Connan bringing in the lost child.

When she was lifted from the horse and handed to her grandmother, Connan gave me a smile which I thought was infinitely charming. That was because it held none of the mockery which I had seen hitherto.

I went up to my room, exultation wrapped about me as the mist wrapped itself about the horse. It was tinged with melancholy but the joy was so strong that the mingling of my feelings was difficult to understand.

I knew of course what had happened to me. To-day had made it very dear. I had done a foolish thing perhaps the most foolish thing I had ever done in my life.

I had fallen in love for the first time, and with someone who was quite out of my world. I was in love with the master of Mount Mellyn, and I had an uneasy feeling that he might be aware of it.

On the table by my bed was the draught which Dr. Pengelly had given me.

I locked the door, undressed, drank the draught and went to bed.

But before I got into bed I looked at myself in my pink flannelette nightdress, primly buttoned up to the throat. Then I laughed at the

incongruity of my thoughts and said aloud in n my best governess’s tones: ” In the morning, after the good night’s rest Dr. Pengelly’s potion will give you, you’U come to your senses.”

The next few weeks were the happiest I had so far spent in Mount Mellyn. It soon became clear that Alvean had suffered no great harm. I was delighted to find that she had lost none of her keenness for riding and asked eager questions about Black Prince’s slight injuries, taking it for granted that she would soon ride him again.

We resumed school after the first week; she was pleased to do so. I also taught her to play chess, and she picked up the game with astonishing speed; and if I handicapped myself by playing without my queen she was even able to checkmate me.

But it was not only Alvean’s progress which made me so happy. It was the fact that Connan was in the house; and what astonished me was that, although he made no reference to my outburst on the day of the accident, he had clearly noted it and would appear in Alvean’s room with books and puzzles which he thought would be of interest to her.

In the first days I said to him : ” There is one thing that pleases her more than all the presents you bring; that is your own company.”

He had answered: ” What an odd child she must be to prefer me to a book or a game.”

I smiled at him and he returned my smile; and again I was aware of that change in his expression.

Sometimes he would sit down and watch our game of chess. Then he would range himself on Alvean’s side against me. I would protest and demand I be allowed to have my queen back.

Alvean would sit smiling, and he would say: ” Look, Alvean. We’ll put our bishop there, and that’ll make our dear Miss Leigh look to her de fences

Alvean would giggle and throw me a triumphant glance, and I would be so happy to be with the two of them that I grew almost careless and nearly lost the game. But not quite. I never forgot that between Connan and me there was a certain battle in progress and I always wanted to prove my mettle.

Though it was only a game of chess I wanted to show him I was his match.

He said one day: ” When Alvean’s movable we’ll drive over to Fowey and have a picnic.”

” Why go to Fowey,” I asked, ” when you have a perfect picnic beach here?”

” My dear Miss Leigh ” —he had acquired a habit of calling me his dear Miss Leigh”-do you not know that other people’s beaches are more exciting than one’s own?”

” Oh yes, Papa,” cried Alvean. ” Do let’s have a picnic.”

She was so eager to get well for the picnic that she ate all the food which was brought to her and talked of the expedition continually. Dr.

Pengelly was delighted with her; so were we all.

I said to Connan one day: ” But you are the real cure. You have made her so happy, because at last you let her see that you are aware of her existence.”

Then he did a surprising thing. He took my hand and lightly kissed my cheek. It was very different from that kiss which he had given me on the night of the ball. This was swift, friendly, passionless yet affectionate.

” No,” he said, ” it is you who are the real cure, my dear Miss Leigh.”

I thought he was going to say something more. But he did not do so.

Instead he left me abruptly.

I did not forget Gilly. I determined to fight for her as I had for Alvean, and I thought the best way of doing so was to speak to Connan about it. He was in that mood, I believed, to grant me what I asked. I should not have been surprised if, when Alvean was about again, he changed to his old self-forgetful of her, full of mockery for me. So I decided to strike my blow for Gilly while I had a chance of success.

I boldly went down to the punch room, when I knew he was there one morning, and asked if I might speak to him.

” But of course, Miss Leigh,” he replied. ” It is always a pleasure to speak to you.”

I came straight to the point. ” I want to do something for Gilly.”

“Yes?”

” I do not believe she is half-witted. I think that no one has made any attempt to help her. I have heard about her accident. Before that, I understand, she was quite a normal little girl. Don’t you see that it might be possible to make her normal once again?”

I saw a return of that mockery to his eyes as he said lightly:

” I believe that as with God, so with Miss Leigh, all things are possible.”

I ignored the flippancy. ” I am asking your permission to give her lessons.”

” My dear Miss Leigh, does not the pupil you came here to teach take up all your time?”

” I have a little spare time, Mr. TreMellyn. Even governesses have that. I would be ready to teach Gilly in my own time, providing of course you do not expressly forbid it.”

” If I forbade you I am sure you would find some way of doing it, so I think it would be simpler if I say: Go ahead with your plans for Gilly. I wish you all success.”

” Thank you,” I said; and turned to go.

” Miss Leigh,” he called. I stood waiting.

“Let us go on that picnic soon. I could carry Alvean if necessary to and from the carriage.”

” That would be excellent, Mr. TreMellyn. I’ll tell her at once. I know it will delight her.”

” And you. Miss Leigh, does it delight you?”

For a moment I thought he was coming towards me and I started back. I was suddenly afraid that he would place his hands on my shoulders and that at his touch I might betray myself.

I said coolly: ” Anything which is going to be so good for Alvean delights me, Mr. TreMellyn.”

And I hurried back to Alvean to tell her the good news.

So the weeks passed—pleasurable, wonderful weeks which I sometimes felt could never be repeated.

I had taken Gilly to the schoolroom and I had even managed to teach her a few letters. She delighted in pictures and quickly became absorbed in them. I really believed she enjoyed our y lessons for she would present herself at the schoolroom each day at the appointed time.

She had been heard to speak a few words now and then and I knew that the whole household was watching the experiment with amusement and interest.

When Alvean was well enough to take lessons in the school room I should have to be prepared for opposition. Alvean’s aversion to Gilly was apparent. I had brought the child into the sick-room on one occasion and Alvean had immediately become sulky. I thought, when she is quite well I shall have to reconcile her to Gilly. But that was one of the problems of the future. I knew very well that when life returned to normal I could not expect these days of pleasure to continue.

There were plenty of visitors for Alvean. Celestine was there every day. She brought fruit and other presents for her. Peter came and she was always pleased to see him.

Once he said to her: ” Do you not think I am a devoted uncle to call and see you so often, Alvean?”

She had retorted: ” Oh, but you don’t come to see me only, do you.

Uncle Peter. You come mainly for Miss. “

He had replied in characteristic style: ” I come to see you both. How fortunate I am to have two such charming ladies on whom to call.”

Lady Treslyn called with expensive books and flowers for Alvean, but Alvean received her sullenly and would scarcely speak to her.

” She is an invalid still. Lady Treslyn,” I explained; and the smile which was flashed upon me almost took my breath away, so beautiful was it.

” Of course I understand,” Lady Treslyn told me. ” Poor child! Mr. TreMellyn tells me that she has been brave and you have been wonderful. I tell him how lucky he is to have found such a treasure. They are not easy to come by,” I said. I reminded him of how my last cook walked out in the middle of a dinner party. She was another such treasure.”

I bowed my head and hated her not because she had linked me in her mind with her cook, but because she was so beautiful, and I knew that rumours persisted about her and Connan and I feared that there was truth in them.

Connan seemed different when this woman was in the house. I felt he scarcely saw me. I heard the sounds of their laughter and I wondered sadly what they said to each other. I saw them in the gardens and I told myself there was an unmistakable intimacy in the very way they walked together.

Then I realised what a fool I had been, for I had been harbouring thoughts which I would not dare express, even to myself. I tried to pretend they did not exist. But they did-and in spite of my better sense they kept intruding.

I dared not look into the future.

Celestine one day suggested that she should take Alvean over to Mount Widden for the day and look after her there.

” It would be a change,” she said.

” Connan,” she added, ” you shall come to dinner, and you can bring her back afterwards.”

He agreed to do so. I was disappointed not to be included in the invitation; which showed what a false picture I had allowed myself to make of the situation during these incredible weeks. Imagine myself—the governess—invited to dine at Mount Widden!

I laughed at my own foolishness, but there was a note of bitterness and sadness. It was like waking up to a chilly morning after weeks of sunshine so brilliant that you thought it was going to last for ever; it was like the gathering of storm clouds in a summer sky.

Connan drove Alvean over in the carriage and I was left alone, for the first time since I arrived here without any definite duties.

I gave Gilly her lesson but I did not believe in taxing the child too much and when I had returned her to her grandmother I wondered what I was going to do.

Then an idea struck me. Why should I not go for a ride, a long ride?

Perhaps on the moors.

I immediately remembered that day when Alvean and I had ridden to her Great-Aunt Clara. I began to feel rather excited. I was remembering the mystery of Alice again, which I had forgotten during those halcyon weeks of Alvean’s convalescence. I began to wonder whether I had been so interested i in Alice’s story because I needed some interest to prevent me from brooding on my own.

I thought to myself, Great-Aunt Clara will want to hear how Alvean is getting on. In any case she had made it dear that I should be welcomed any time I called. Of course it would be different, calling without Alvean; but then I believed that she had been more interested to talk to me than to the child.

So I made up my mind.

I went to Mrs. Polgrey and said: ” Alvean will be away all day. I propose to take a day’s holiday.”

Mrs. Polgrey had become very fond of me since I had taken such an interest in Gilly. She really did love the child, I believed. It was merely because she had assumed that Gilly’s strangeness had been the price which had to be paid for her parents’ sins that she had accepted her as non compos mentis.

” And none deserves a holiday more. Miss,” she said to me. ” Where are you going?”

” I think I’ll go on to the moors. I’ll take luncheon at an inn.”

” Do you think you should, Miss, by yourself?”

I smiled at her. ” I am very well able to take care of myself, Mrs. Polgrey. “

” Well, there be bogs on the moor and mists and the Little People, some say.”

” Little People indeed!”

” Ah, don’ tee laugh at ‘em. Miss. They don’t like people to laugh at ‘em. There’s some as say they’ve seen ‘em. Little gnome-like men in sugar loaf hats. If they don’t like ‘ee they’ll lead ‘ee astray with their fairy lanterns, and afore you knows where you be you’m in the middle of a bog that sucks ‘ee down and won’t letee go however much you do struggle.”

I gave a shiver. ” I’ll be careful, and I wouldn’t dream of offending the Little People. If I meet any I’ll be very polite.”

” You’m mocking, Miss, I do believe.”

” I’ll be all right, Mrs. Polgrey. Don’t have any fears about me.”

I went to the stables and asked Tapperty which horse I could have today.

” There’s May Morning if you’d like her. She be free.”

I told him I was going to the moors. ” A good chance to see the country,” I added.

” Trust you, Miss. Bairi’t much you miss.” And he laughed to himself as though enjoying some private joke.

“You be going with a companion. Miss?” he asked slyly.

I said that I was going alone, but I could see that he did not believe me.

I felt rather angry with him because I guessed that his thoughts were on Peter Nansellock. I believed that my name had been coupled with his since he had been so foolish as to send Jacinth over for me.

I wondered too if my growing friendship with Connan had been noted. I was horrified at the possibility. Oddly enough I could bear to contemplate their sly remarks which I was sure were exchanged out of my hearing, about Peter and me; it would be a different matter if they talked in that way of me and Connan.

How ridiculous! I told myself as I walked May Morning out of the stables and down to the village.

There is nothing to talk about between you and Connan. But there is, I answered myself; and I fell to thinking of those two occasions when he had kissed me.

I looked across the cove at Mount Widden. Wistfully I hoped that I should meet Connan coming back. But I didn’t of course; he would stay there with Alvean and his friends. Why should I imagine that he would want to come back to be with me? I was letting this foolish habit of day dreaming get the better of my common sense.

But I continued to hope until I had left the village well behind me and I came to the first grey wall and boulders of the moor.

It was a sparkling December morning and there were great golden patches of gorse dotted over the moor.

I could smell the peaty soil, and the wind which had veered a little to the north was fresh and exhilarating.

I wanted to gallop across the moor with that wind in my face. I gave way to my desire and while I did so I imagined that Connan was riding beside me and that he called me to stop that he might tell me what a difference I had made to his life as well as Alvean’s, and that, incongruous as it seemed, he was in love with me.

In this moorland country it was possible to believe in fantastic dreams; as some told themselves that these tracts of land were inhabited by the Little People, so I told myself that it was not impossible that Connan TreMeIlyn would fall in love with me.

At midday I arrived at The House on the Moor. It was very like that other occasion; the elderly housekeeper came out to welcome me and I was taken into Great-Aunt Clara’s sitting room.

” Good day to you, Miss Leigh! And all alone today?”

So no one bad told her of Alvean’s accident. I was astonished. I should have thought Connan would have sent someone over to explain, since the old lady was obviously interested in her great-niece.

I told her about the accident and she looked very concerned. I hastily added that Alvean was getting on well and would soon be about again.

” But you must be in need of some refreshment, Miss Leigh,” she said.

” Let us have a glass of my elderberry wine; and will you stay to luncheon?”

I said it was most kind of her to invite me and if it were not causing too much inconvenience I should be delighted to do so.

We sipped our elderberry wine, and once more I was consdous of that heady feeling which I had experienced after her dandelion wine on the previous occasion. Luncheon consisted of mutton with caper sauce exceedingly well cooked and served; and afterwards we retired to the drawing room for what she called a little chat.

This was what I had been hoping for, and I was not to be disappointed.

” Tell me,” she said, ” how is dear little Alvean? Is she happier now?”

” Why … yes, I think she is very much happier. In fact I think she has been more so since her accident. Her father has been so attentive, and she is so” fond of him. “

” Ah,” said Great-Aunt Clara, ” her father.” She looked at me, and her bright blue eyes showed her excitement. I knew she was one of those women who cannot resist talking; and since she spent so much of her time with only her own household, the coming of a visitor such as myself was an irresistible temptation.

I was determined to make the temptation even more irresistible. I said tentatively: ” There is not the usual relationship between them, I fancy.”

There was a slight pause, and then she said quickly : ” No. I suppose it is inevitable.”

I did not speak. I waited breathlessly, afraid that she might change her mind. She was hovering on the edge of confidences and I felt that she could give me some vital due to the situation at Mount Mellyn, to the story of the TreMellyns which I was beginning reluctantly to admit might very well become my story.

” I sometimes blame myself,” she said, as though she were talking to herself; and indeed her blue eyes looked beyond me as though she were looking back over the years and was quite unconscious of my presence.

” The question is,” she went on, ” how much should one interfere in the lives of others.”

It was a question which had often interested me. I had certainly tried to interfere in the lives of people I had met since I entered Mount ” Alice was with me after the engagement,” she went on. ” Everything could have changed then. But I persuaded her. You see, I thought he was the better man.”

She was being a little incoherent, and I was afraid to ask her to elucidate lest I broke the spell. She might remember that she was betraying confidences to a young woman who was more curious than she should be.

” I wonder what would have happened if she had acted differently then.

Do you ever play that game with yourself, Miss Leigh? Do you ever say, now if at a certain point I . or someone else . had done such and such . the whole tenor of life for that person would have changed? “

” Yes,” I said. ” Everybody does. You think that things would have been different for your niece and for Alvean.”

” Oh yes … for her Alice more than most. She had come to a real turning-point. A crossroads, one might say. Go this way and you have such and such a life. Go that way and everything will be quite different. It frightens me sometimes because if she had turned to the right instead of the left … as it were … she might be here to-day. After all, if she had married Geoffry there would not have been any need to run away with him, would there?”

“I see you were in her confidence.”

” Indeed yes. I’m afraid I had quite a big part in shaping what happened. That’s what alarmed me. Did I do right?”

” I am sure you did what you thought was right, and that is all any of us can do. You loved your niece very much, did you not?”

” Very much. My children were boys, you see, and I’d always wanted a girl. Alice used to come and play with my family … three boys and no girl. I used to hope that she might marry one of them. Cousins though. Perhaps that would not have been so good. I didn’t live in this house then. We were in Penzance. Alice’s parents had a big estate some few miles inland. That’s her husband’s now of course. She had a good fortune to bring to a husband. All the same, perhaps it would not have been good for cousins to marry. In any case they were set on the marriage with the TreMellyns.”

” So that was arranged.”

” Yes. Alice’s father was dead, and her mother she was my sister had always been very fond of Connan TreMellyn … the elder I mean.

There have been Connans in that family for centuries. The eldest son was aways given the name. I think my sister would have liked to marry the present Connan’s father, but other marriages were arranged for them, and so they wanted their children to marry. They were betrothed when Connan was twenty and Alice eighteen. The marriage was to take place a year later. “

” So it was indeed a marriage of convenience.”

” How odd it is! Marriages of convenience often turn out to be marriages of inconvenience, do they not? They thought it would be a good idea if she came to stay with me. You see, I was within a few hours’ riding distance from Mount Mellyn, and the young people could meet often like that … without her staying at the house. Of course you might say, why did not her mother take her to stay at Mount Mellyn? My sister was very ill at that time and not able to travel. In any case it was arranged that she should stay with me.”

” And I suppose Mr. TreMellyn rode over to see her often.”

” Yes. But not as often as I should have expected. I began to suspect that they were not as well matched as their fortunes were.”

” Tell me about Alice,” I said earnestly. ” What sort of girl was she?”

” How can I explain her to you. The word light comes to my mind. She was lighthearted, light-minded. I do not mean she was light in her morals which is a sense in which some people use the word. Although of course, after what happened … But who shall judge? You see, he came over here to paint. He did some peautiful pictures of the moors.”

” Who? Connan TreMellyn?”

” Oh, dear me, no! Geoffry. Geoffry Nansellock. He was an artist of some reputation. Did you not know that?”

” No,” I said. ” I know nothing of him except that he was killed with Alice last July twelvemonth.”

” He came over here often while she was with me. In fact he came more often than Connan did. I began to wonder how matters stood. There was something between them. They would go off together and he’d have his painting things with him. She used to say she was going to watch him at work. She would be a painter herself one day. But of course it was not painting they did together.”

” They were … in love?” I asked.

” I was rather frightened when she told me. You see, there was going to be a child.”

I caught my breath in surprise. Alvean, I thought. No wonder he could not bring himself to love her. No wonder my statement that she possessed artistic talent upset him and Celestine.

” She told me two weeks before the day fixed for her wedding. She was almost certain, she said. She did not think she could be mistaken. She said, ” What shall I do. Aunt Clara? Shall I marry Geoffry? “

” I said: Does Geoffry want to marry you, my dear?” And she answered: He would have to, would he not, if I told him. “

” I know now that she should have told him. It was only right that she should. But her marriage was already arranged, Alice was an heiress and I wondered whether Geoffry had hoped for this. You see the Nansellocks had very little and Alice’s fortune would have been a blessing to them. I wondered … as one does wonder. He had a certain reputation too. There had been others who found themselves in Alice’s condition, and it was due to him. I did not think she would be very happy with him for long.”

There was silence, and I felt as though vital parts of a puzzle were being fitted together to give my picture meaning.

” I remember her … that day,” the old lady continued. ” It was in this very room. I often go over it. She talked to me about it … unburdening herself as I’m unburdening myself to you. It’s been on my conscience for the last year … ever since she died. You see, she said to me: What shall I do, Aunt Clara? Help me…. Tell me what I should do.”

” And I answered her. I said : There’s only one thing you can do, my dear; and that is go on with your marriage to Connan TreMellyn. You’re betrothed to him. You must forget what happened with Geoffry Nansellock.” And she said to me: ‘ Aunt Clara, how can I forget? There’ll be a living reminder, won’t there? ” Then I did this terrible thing. I said to her: ‘ You must marry. Your child will be born prematurely. ” Then she threw back her head and laughed and laughed. It was hysterical laughter. Poor Alice, she was near breaking-point. “

Great-Aunt Clara sat back in her chair; she looked as though she had just come out of a trance. I really believe she had been seeing, not me sitting opposite her, but Alice.

She was now a little frightened because she was wondering whether she had told me too much.

I said nothing. I was picturing it all; the wedding which would have been a ceremonial occasion; the death of Alice’s mother almost immediately afterwards; and Connan’s father had died the following year. The marriage had been to please them and they had not lived long to enjoy it. And Alice was left with Connan—my Connan—and Alvean, the child of another man, whom she bad tried to pass off as his. She had not succeeded—that much I knew.

He had kept up the pretence that Alvean was his daughter, but he had never accepted her as such in his mind. Alvean knew it; she admired him so much; but she suspected something was wrong and she was uncertain; she longed to be accepted as his daughter. Perhaps he had never really discovered whether she was or not.

The situation was fraught with drama. And yet, I thought, what good can come of brooding on it? Alice is dead; Alvean and Connan are alive. Let them forget what happened in the past. If they were wise they would try to make happiness for each other in the future.

” Oh, my dear,” sighed Great-Aunt Clara, ” how I talk! It is like living it all again. I have wearied you.” A little fear crept into her voice. ” I have talked too much and you, Miss Leigh, have played no part in all this. I trust you will keep what I have said, to yourself.”

” You may trust me to do so,” I assured her.

” I knew it. I would not have told you otherwise. But in any case, it is all so long ago. It has been a comfort to talk to you. I think about it all sometimes during the night. You see, it might have been right for her to marry GeofEry. Perhaps she thought so, and that was why she tried to run away with him. To think of them on that train! It seems like the judgment of God, doesn’t it?”

” No,” I said sharply. ” There were many other people on that train who were killed. They weren’t all on the point of leaving their husbands with other men.”

She laughed on a high note. ” How right you are! I knew you had lots of common sense. And you don’t think I did wrong? You see, I sometimes tell myself that, if I had persuaded her not to marry Connan, she wouldn’t. That is what frightens me. I pointed the way to her destiny.”

” You must not blame yourself,” I said. ” Whatever you did you did because you thought it was best for her. And we after all make our own destinies. I am sure of that.”

” You do comfort me, Miss Leigh. You will stay and have tea with me, won’t you?”

” It is kind of you, but I think I should be back before dark.”

” Oh yes, you must be back before dark.”

” It grows dark so early at this time of year.”

” Then I must not be selfish and keep you. Miss Leigh, when Alvean is well enough, you will bring her over to see me?”

” I promise I shall.”

” And if you yourself feel like coming over before that….”

” Depend upon it, I shall come. You have given me a very pleasant and interesting time.”

The fear came back into her eyes. ” You will remember it was in confidence?”

I reassured her. I knew that this charming old lady’s greatest pleasure in life must have been sharing confidences, telling a little more than was discreet. Well, I thought, we all have our little vices.

She came to the door to wave me on when I left.

” It’s been so pleasant,” she reiterated. ” And don’t forget.” She put her finger to her lips and her eyes sparkled.

I imitated the gesture and, waving, rode off.

I was very thoughtful on the way home. This day I had learned so much.

I was nearly at Mellyn village when the thought struck me that Gilly was Alvean’s half-sister. I remembered then the drawings I had seen of Alvean and Gilly combined.

So Alvean knew. Or did she merely fear? Was she trying to convince herself that her father was not Geoffry Nansellock which would make her Gilly’s half-sister? Or did her great desire for Connan’s approval really mean that she was longing for him to accept her as his daughter?

I felt a great desire to help them all out of this morass of tragedy into which Alice’s indiscretion had plunged them.

I can do it, I told myself. I will do it.

Then I thought of Connan with Lady Treslyn, and I was n filled with disquiet. What absurd and impossible dreams I was indulging in. What chance had I—a governess—of showing Connan the way to happiness?

Christmas was rapidly approaching, and it brought with it all that excitement which I remembered so well from the old days in my father’s vicarage.

Kitty and Daisy were constantly whispering together, and Mrs. Polgrey said that they nearly drove her crazy, and that their work was more skimped than usual, though that had to be seen to be believed. She went about the house sighing ” Nowadays….” and shaking her head in sorrow. But even she was excited.

The weather was warm, more like the approach of spring than of winter.

On my walks in the woods I noticed that the primroses had begun to bloom.

” My dear life,” said Tapperty, ” primroses in December be nothing new to we. Spring do come early to Cornwall.”

I began to think about Christmas presents and I made a little list.

There must be something for Phillida and her family, and Aunt Adelaide; but I was mainly concerned with the people at Mount Mellyn.

I had a little money to spend, as I used very little and had saved most of what I had earned since I had taken my post at Mount Mellyn.

One day I went into Plymouth and did my Christmas shopping. I bought books for Phillida and her family and had them sent direct to her; I bought a scarf for Aunt Adelaide and that was sent direct too. I spent a long time choosing what I would give the Mellyn household. Finally, I decided on scarves for Kitty and Daisy, red and green which would suit them; and a blue one for Gilly to match her eyes. For Mrs. Polgrey I bought a bottle of whisky which I was sure would delight her more than anything else, and for Alvean some handkerchiefs in many colours, with A embroidered on them.

I was pleased with my purchases. I was beginning to grow as excited about Christmas as Daisy and Kitty were.

The weather continued very mild, and on Christmas Eve I helped Mrs. Polgrey and the girls to decorate the great hall and some of the other rooms.

The men had been out the previous day and brought in ivy, holly, box and bay. I was shown how the pillars in the great hall were entwined with these leaves and Daisy and Kitty taught me how to make Christmas bushes; they were delightedly shocked by an ignorance like mine. I had never before heard of a Christmas bush! We took two wooden hoops one inserted into the other and this ball-like frame work we decorated with evergreen leaves and furze; then we hung oranges and apples on it; and I must say this made a pretty show. These we hung in some of the windows.

The biggest logs were carried in for the fireplaces, and the house was filled with laughter, while the servants’ hall was decorated in exactly the same manner as the great hall.

“We do have our ball here while the family be having theirs,” Daisy told me; and I wondered to which ball I should go. Perhaps to neither.

A governess’s position was somewhere in between, I supposed.

” My life!” cried Daisy, ” I can scarcely wait for the day. Last Christmas was a quiet one … had to be on account of the house being in mourning. But we in the servants’ hall managed pretty well.

There was dash-an-darras and metheglin to drink, and Mrs. Polgrey’s sloe gin had to be tasted to be believed. There was mutton and beef, I remember, and hog’s pudding. No feast in these parts ain’t complete without hog’s pudding. You ask Father! “

All through Christmas Eve the smell of baking filled the kitchen and its neighbourhood. Tapperty, with Billy Trehay and some of the boys from the stables, came to the door just to smell it. Mrs. Tapperty was up at the house all day working in the kitchen. I scarcely recognised the usualy calm and dignified Mrs. Polgrey. She was bustling about, her face flushed, purring, stirring and talking ecstatically of pies which bore the odd names of squab and lam my giblet, muggety and her by

I was called in to help.

“Do ‘ee keep your eye on that saucepan. Miss, and should it come to the boil tell I quickly.” Mrs. Polgrey’s dialect became more and more broad as the excitement grew, and I could scarcely understand the language which was being bandied about in the kitchen that Christmas.

I was smiling fatuously at a whole batch of pasties which had just come out of the oven, golden-brown pastry with the smell of savoury meats and onions, when Kitty came in shouting:

” M’am, the curl singers be here.”

“Well, bring ‘em, bring ‘em in, ye daftie,” cried Mrs. Polgrey, forgetting dignity in the excitement and wiping her hand across her sweating brow. ” What be ‘ee waiting for? Don’tee know, me dear, that it be bad luck to keep curl singers waiting?”

I followed her into the hall, where a company of village youths and girls had gathered. They were already singing when we arrived, and I understood that the curl singers were what were known in other parts of the country as carol singers.

They rendered ” The Seven Joys of Mary,”

” The Holly and the Ivy,”

” The Twelve Days of Christmas ” and ” The First Noel.” We all joined in.

Then the leader of the group began to sing:

” Come let me taste four Christmas beer That is so very strong, And I do wish that Christmas time, With all its mirth and song, Was twenty times as long.”

Then Mrs. Polgrey signed to Daisy and Kitty, who were already on their way, I guessed, to bring refreshment to the party after this gentle reminder.

Metheglin was served to the singers with blackberry and elderberry wine, and into their hands were thrust great pasties, some containing meat, some fish. The satisfaction was evident.

And when they had finished eating and drinking, a bowl-which was tied with red ribbons and decorated with furze—was handed to Mrs. Polgrey who very majestically placed some coins in it.

When they had gone Daisy said: ” Well, now that lot have come a-goo ding what’s to be next?”

She delighted in my ignorance of course when I had to ask what a-goo ding meant.

” My dear life, you don’t know all, Miss, do ‘ee now. To go a-goo ding means to go collecting for Christmas wine or a Christmas cake. What else?”

I realised that I had a great deal to learn concerning the habits of the Cornish, but I did feel that I was enjoying their way of celebrating Christmas.

” Oh, Miss, I forgot to tell ‘ee,” cried Daisy. ” There be a parcel in your room. I took it up Just afore them come a-goo ding and forgot to tell ‘ee till now.” She was surprised because I lingered. ” A parcel, Miss! Don’tee want to see what it is?

“Twas so size, and ‘twas a box like as not.”

I realised that I had been in a dream. I felt that I wanted to stay here for ever, and learn all the customs of this part of the world. I wanted to make it my part of the world.

I shook myself out of that dream. What you really want, I told myself, is some fairy-tale ending to your story. You want to be the mistress of Mount Mellyn. Why not admit it? I went up to my room, and there I found Phillida’s parcel. I took out a shawl of black silk on which was embroidered a pattern in green and amber. There was also an amber comb of the Spanish type. I stuck the comb in my hair and wrapped the shawl about me. I was startled by my reflection. I looked exotic, more like a Spanish dancer than an English governess.

There was something else in the parcel. I undid it quickly and saw that it was a dress one of Phillida’s which I had greatly admired. It was of green silk, the same shade of green as in the shawl. A letter fell out.

” Dear Marty, How is the governessing? Your last letter sounded as though you found it intriguing. I believe your Alvean is a little horror. Spoilt child, I’ll swear. Are they treating you well? It sounded as if that side of it was not too bad. What is the matter with you, by the way? You used to write such amusing letters. Since you’ve been in that place you’ve become uncommunicative. I suspect you either love it or hate it. Do tell.

The shawl and comb are my Christmas gift. I hope you like them because I spent a lot of time choosing. Are they too frivolous? Would you rather have had a set of woollen underwear or some improving book? But I heard from Aunt Adelaide that she was sending you the former. There is a distinctly governessy flavour in your letters. All sound and fury, Marty, my dear, signifying nothing. I am wondering whether you’ll be sitting down to dine with the family this Christmas or presiding in the servants’ hall. I’m sure it will be the former. They couldn’t help but ask you. After all it is Christmas. You’ll dine with the family even if there’s one of those dinner parties where a guest doesn’t turn up and they say,” Send for the governess. We cannot be thirteen.” So our Marty goes to dine in my old green and her new scarf and comb, and there she attracts a millionaire and lives happily ever after.

Seriously, Marty, I did think you might need something for the festivities. So the green gown is a gift. Don’t think of it as a cast-off. I love the thing and I’m giving it to you, not because I’m tired of it, but because it always suited you better than me.

I shall want to hear all about the Christmas festivities. And, dear sister, when you’re the fourteenth at the dinner table don’t freeze likely suitors with a look or give them one of your clever retorts. Be a nice gentle girl and, kind lady, I see romance and fortune in the cards for you.

Happy Christmas, dear Marty, and do write soon sending the real news.

The children and William send their love. Mine to you also. Phillida.”

I felt rather emotional. It was a link with home. Dear Phillida, she did think of me often then. Her shawl and comb were beautiful, even if a little incongruous for someone in my humble position; and it was good of her to send the dress.

I was startled by a sudden cry. I spun round and saw Alvean at the door which led to the schoolroom. ” Miss!” she cried. ” So it’s you!”

” Of course. Who did you think it was?” She did not answer, but I knew. ” I’ve never seen you look like that. Miss.”

” You’ve never seen me in a shawl and comb.”

“You look … pretty.”

” Thank you, Alvean.”

She was a little shaken. I knew who she had thought it was standing in my room.

I was the same height as Alice, and if I were less slender that would not be obvious with the silk shawl round me.

Christmas Day was a day to remember all my life, I awoke in the morning to the sounds of excitement . The servants were laughing and talking together below my window.

I opened my eyes and thought: Christmas Day. And then:

My first Christmas at Mount Mellyn.

Perhaps, I said to myself trying to throw a cold douche over my exuberance which somehow made me apprehensive because it was so great, it will be not only your first but your last.

A whole year lay between this Christmas and the next. Who could say what would happen in that time?

I was out of bed when my water was brought up. Daisy scarcely stopped a moment, she was so full of excitement.

” I be late. Miss, but there be so much to do. You’d better hurry now or you’ll not be in time to see the wassail. They’ll be coming early, you can depend on that. They know the family ‘un be off to church, so they mustn’t be late.”

There was no time to ask questions so I washed and dressed and took out my parcels. Alvean’s had already been put by her bed the previous night.

I went to the window. The air was balmy and it had that strong tang of spices in it. I drew deep breaths and listened to the gentle rhythm of the waves. They said nothing this morning; they merely swished contentedly. This was Christmas morning when for a day all troubles, all differences might be shelved.

Alvean came to my room. She was carrying her embroidered handkerchiefs rather shyly. She said: ” Thank you. Miss. A happy Christmas!”

I put my arms about her and kissed her, and although she seemed a little embarrassed by this demonstration she returned my kiss.

She had brought a brooch so like the silver whip I had given her that I thought for a moment that she was returning my gift.

” I got it from Mr. Pastern,” she said. ” I wanted one as near mine as possible, but not too near, so that we shouldn’t get them mixed up.

Yours has got a little engraving on the handle. Now we’ll each have one when we go riding. “

I was delighted. She had not ridden since her accident, and she could not have shown me more dearly that she was ready to start again.

I said : ” You could not have given me anything I should have liked better, Alyean.”

She was very pleased, although she murmured in an offhand way: ” I’m glad you like it, Miss.” Then she left me abruptly.

This, I told myself, is going to be a wonderful day. It’s Christmas.

My presents proved to be a great success. Mrs. Polgrey’s eyes glistened at the sight of the whisky; as for Gilly, she was delighted with her scarf. I suppose the poor child had never had anything so pretty before; she kept stroking it and staring at it in wonder. Daisy and Kitty were pleased with their scarves too; and I felt I had been clever in my choice.

Mrs. Polgrey gave me a set of doilies with a coy whisper:

” For your bottom drawer, me dear.” I replied that I would start one immediately, and we were very gay. She said that she would make a cup of tea and we’d sample my whisky, but there wasn’t the time.

” My dear life, when I think of all there has to be done today!”

The wassail singers arrived in the morning and I heard their voices at the door of the great hall.

” The Master and Mistress our wassail begin Pray open your door and let us come in With our wassail, wassail, wassail. And joy come to our jolly wassail.”

They came into the hall, and they also carried a bowl into which coins were dropped; and all the servants crowded in and, as Connan entered, the singing grew louder and the verse was repeated.

” The Master and the Mistress …”

I thought, Two years ago, Alice would have stood there with him. Does he remember? He showed no sign. He sang with them and ordered that the stirrup cup, the dash-and arras be brought out with the saffron cake and pasties and gingerbread, which had been made for the occasion.

He moved nearer to me.

“Well, Miss Leigh,” he said under cover of the singing, ” what do you think of a Cornish Christmas?”

” Very interesting.”

” You haven’t seen half yet.”

” I should hope not. The day has scarcely begun.”

” You should rest this afternoon.”

” But why?”

” For the feasting this evening.”

” But I …”

” Of course you will join us. Where else would you spend your Christmas Day? With the Polgreys? With the Tappertys?”

” I did not know. I wondered whether I was expected to hover between the great hall and the servants’ hall.”

” You look disapproving.”

” I am not sure.”

” Oh, come, this is Christmas. Do not wonder whether you should be sure or not. Just come. By the way, I have not wished you a merry Christmas yet. I have something here … a little gift. A token of my gratitude, if you like. You have been so good to Alvean since her accident. Oh, and before of course, I have no doubt. But it has been brought to my notice so forcibly since …”

” But I have only done my duty as a governess….”

” And that is something you would always do. I know it. Well, let’s say this is merely to wish you a merry Christmas.”

He had pressed a small object into my hand, and I was so overcome with pleasure that I felt it must show in my eyes and betray my feelings to him.

” You are very good to me,” I said. ” I had not thought…”

He smiled and moved away to the singers. I bad noticed Tapperty’s eyes on us. I wondered whether he had seen the gift handed to me.

I wanted to be alone, for I felt so emotionally disturbed. The small case he had pressed into my hand was demanding to be opened. I could not do so here.

I slipped out of the hall and ran up to my room.

It was a small, blue plush case, the sort which usually contained jewellery.

I opened it. Inside, on oyster-coloured satin, lay a brooch. It was in the form of a horseshoe, and it was studded with what could only be diamonds.

I stared at it in dismay. I could not accept such a valuable object. I must return it of course.

I held it up to the light and saw the flash of red and green in the stones. It must be worth a great deal of money. I possessed no diamonds, but I could see that these were fine ones.

Why did he do it? If it had been some small token I should have been so happy. I wanted to throw myself on to my bed and weep.

I could hear Alvean calling me. ” Miss, it’s time for church. Come on, Miss. The carriage is waiting to take us to church.”

I hastily put the brooch into its box and put on my cape and bonnet as Alvean came into the room.

I saw him after church. He was going across to the stables and I called after him.

He hesitated, looked over his shoulder and smiled at me.

” Mr. TreMellyn. It is very kind of you,” I said as I ran up to him, “but this gift is far too valuable for me to accept.”

He put his head on one side and regarded me in the old mocking manner.

” My dear Miss Leigh,” he said lightly. ” I am a very ignorant man, I fear. I have no notion how valuable a gift must be before it is acceptable.”

I flushed hotly and stammered: ” This is a very valuable ornament.”

” I thought it so suitable. A horseshoe means luck, you know. And you have a way with horses, have you not?”

” I … I have no occasion to wear such a valuable piece of jewellery.”

” I thought you might wear it to the ball tonight.”

For a moment I had a picture of myself dancing with him. I should be wearing Phillida’s green silk dress, which would compare favourably with those of his guests because Phillida had a way with clothes. I would wear my shawl, and my diamond brooch would be proudly flaunted on the green silk, because I treasured it so much, and I treasured it because he had given it to me.

” I feel I have no right.”

” Oh,” he murmured, ” I begin to understand. You feel that I give the brooch in the same spirit as Mr. Nansellock offered Jacinth.”

” So …” I stammered, ” you knew of that?”

” Oh, I know most things that go on here. Miss Leigh. You returned the horse. Very proper and what I would expect of you. Now the brooch is given in a very different spirit. I give it to you for a reason. You have been good to Alvean. Not only as a governess but as a woman. Do you know what I mean? There is more to the care of a child, is there not, than arithmetic and grammar. You gave her that little extra. The brooch belonged to Alvean’s mother. Look upon it like this, Miss Leigh: It is a gift of appreciation from us both. Does that make it all right?”

I was silent for a few moments. Then I said : ” Yes … that is different, of course. I accept the brooch. Thank you very much, Mr. TreMellyn. “

He smiled at me—it was a smile I did not fully understand, because it seemed to hold in it many meanings.

I was afraid to try to understand.

” Thank you,” I murmured again; and I hurried back to the house.

I went up to my room and took out the brooch. I pinned it on my dress, and immediately my lavender cotton took on a new look.

I would wear the diamonds tonight. I would go in Phillida’s dress and my comb and shawl, and on my breast I would wear Alice’s diamonds.

So on this strange Christmas Day I had a gift from Alice.

I had dined in the middle of the day in the small dining room with Connan and Alvean, the first meal I had taken with them in this intimacy. We had eaten turkey and plum pudding and had been waited on by Kitty and Daisy. I could feel that certain significant looks were being directed towards us.

” On Christmas Day,” Connan had said, ” you could not be expected to dine alone. Do you know, Miss Leigh, I fear we have treated you rather badly. I should have suggested that you should go home to your family for Christmas. You should have reminded me.”

” I felt I had been here too short a time to ask for a holiday,” I answered. ” Besides …”

” In view of Alvean’s accident, you felt you should stay,” he murmured. “It is good of you to be so thoughtful.”

Conversation in the small dining room was animated. The three of us discussed the Christmas customs, and Connan told us stories of what had happened in previous years, how on one occasion the wassailers had arrived late so that the family had gone to church and they had to wait outside and serenade them all the way home.

I imagined Alice with him now. I imagined her sitting in the chair I now occupied. I wondered what the conversation was like then. I wondered if now, seeing me there, he was thinking of Alice.

I kept reminding myself that it was merely because it was Christmas that I was sitting here. That after the festivities were over I should revert to my old place.

But I was not going to think of that now. Tonight I was going to the ball. Miraculously I had a dress worthy of the occasion. I had a comb of amber and a brooch of diamonds. I felt. Tonight I shall mingle with these people on my own terms. It will be quite unlike that occasion when I danced in the solarium.

I took Connan’s advice that afternoon and tried to rest so that I might stay fresh until the early morning. Much to my surprise I did manage to sleep. I must have slept lightly for I dreamed, and as so often in this house, my dreams were of Alice. I thought that she came to the ball, a shadowy wraith of a figure whom no one but I could see, and she whispered to me as I danced with Connan: ” This is what I want, Marty. I like to see this.

I like to see you sitting in my chair at luncheon. I like to see your hand in that of Connan. You . Marty . you . not another. “

I awoke with reluctance. That was a pleasant dream. I tried to sleep again, tried to get back to that half-world where ghosts came back from the tomb and told you that they longed for you to have all that you most wanted in life.

Daisy brought me a cup of tea at five o’clock. On Mrs. Polgrey’s instructions, she told me.

” I’ve broughtee a piece of Mrs. Polgrey’s fuggan to take with it,” she said, indicating a slice of raisin cake. ” If there’s more you do want, ‘tis only for you to say.”

I said : ” This will be ample.”

” Then you’ll be wanting to get ready for the ball, will ‘ee not, Miss?”

” There’s plenty of time,” I told her.

” I’ll bring ‘ee hot water at six, Miss. That’ll give ‘ee plenty of time to dress. The Master ‘un be receiving the guests at eight. That’s how it always was. And don’t forget—’tis but buffet supper at nine, so there’s a long time to go afore you’ get more to eat. Are you sure you wouldn’t like something more than that there piece of fuggan?”

I was sure I was going to find it difficult to eat what she had brought so I said: ” This is quite enough. Daisy.”

” Well, ‘tis for you to say, Miss.”

She stood at the door a moment, her head on one side, watching me.

Speculatively? Was she regarding me with a new interest?

I pictured them in the servants’ hall, Tapperty leading the conversation.

Were they always wondering what new relationship had begun—or was about to begin—between the Master of the house and the governess?

I was at the ball in Phillida’s green dress with the tight, low-cut bodice and the billowing skirt. I had dressed my hair differently, piling it high on my head; it was necessary to do so in order to do justice to the comb. On my dress sparkled the diamond brooch.

I was happy. I could mingle with the guests as one of them. No one would know, unless told, that I was only the governess.

I had waited until the ballroom was full before I went down. Then I could best mingle with the guests. I had only been there a few minutes when Peter was at my elbow.

” You look dazzling,” he said.

” Thank you. I am glad to surprise you.”

“I’m not in the least surprised. I always knew how you could look, given the chance.”

” You always know how to pay the compliment.”

” To you I always say what I mean. One thing I have not yet said to you, and that is A happy Christmas.”

” Thank you. I wish you the same. “

” Let us make it so for each other. I have brought no gift for you.”

” But why should you?”

” Because it is Christmas, and a pleasant custom for friends to exchange gifts.”

” But not for …”

” Please … please … no reminders of governessing tonight. One day I am going to give you Jacinth, you know. She is meant for you. I see Connan is about to open the ball. Will you partner me?”

” Thank you, yes.”

” It’s the traditional dance, you know.”

” I don’t know it.”

” It’s easy. You only have to follow me.” He began humming the tune to me. ” Haven’t you seen it done before?”

” Yes, through the peep in the solarium at the last ball.”

” Ah, that last ball! We danced together. But Connan cut in, didn’t he?”

” It was somewhat unconventional.”

” Very, for our governess. I’m really surprised at her.”

The music had begun, and Connan was walking into the centre of the hall holding Celestine by the hand. To my horror I realised that Peter and I would have to join them and dance those first few bars with them.

I tried to hold back, but Peter had me firmly by the hand. Celestine was surprised to see me there; but if Connan was he gave no sign. I imagined that Celestine reasoned: It is all very well to ask the governess as it Is Christmas. But should she immediately thrust herself into such a prominent position?

However, I believed her to be of too sweet a nature to show her astonishment after that first start of surprise. She gave me a warm smile.

I said : “I shouldn’t be here. I don’t really know the dance.

I didn’t realise . “

” Follow us,” said Connan.

” We’ll look after you,” echoed Peter.

And in a few seconds the others were falling in behind us.

Round the hall we went to the tune of The Furry Dance.

” You’re doing excellently,” said Connan with a smile as our hands touched.

” You will soon be a Cornishwoman,” added Celestine. ” And why not?” demanded Peter. ” Are we not the salt of the earth?”

” I am not sure that Miss Leigh thinks so,” replied Connan. ” I am becoming very interested in all the customs of the country,” I added.

” And in the inhabitants, I hope,” whispered Peter. We danced on. It was simple enough to learn, and when it was over I knew all the movements.

As the last bars were played I heard someone to say: ” Who is the striking-looking young woman who danced with Peter Nansellock?”

I wanted for the answer to be: ” Oh, that’s the governess.” But it was different: ” I’ve no idea. She certainly is … unusual.”

I was exultant. I doubt that I had ever been so happy in my life.

I knew that in the time to come I should treasure every minute of that wonderful evening, for I was not only at the ball, I was a success at the ball.

I did not lack partners; and, even when I was forced to admit that I was the governess, I continued to receive the homage due to an attractive woman. What had happened to change me, I wondered. Why couldn’t I have been like this at Aunt Adelaide’s parties? But if I had, I should never have come to Mount Mellyn.

Then I knew why I had not been like this. It was not only the green dress, the amber comb and the diamond brooch; I was in love, and love was the greatest beautifier of all.

Never mind if I was ridiculously, hopelessly in love. I was like Cinderella at the ball, determined to enjoy myself until the stroke of twelve.

A strange thing happened while I was dancing. I was with Sir Thomas Treslyn, who turned out to be a courteous old gentleman, a little wheezy during the dance so I suggested that he might prefer to sit out the rest of it. He was very grateful to me and I felt quite fond of him. I was ready to be fond of anyone on that night.

He said: ” I’m getting a little too old for the dance. Miss er …”

” Leigh,” I said. ” Miss Leigh. I’m the governess here, Sir Thomas.”

” Oh indeed,” he said. ” I was going to say. Miss Leigh, it is extremely kind of you to think of my comfort when you must be longing to dance.”

” I’m quite happy to sit for a while.”

” I see that you are kind as well as very attractive.”

I remembered Phillida’s instructions and accepted the compliments nonchalantly as though I had been accustomed to them all my life.

He was relaxed and confidential. ” It’s my wife who likes to come to these affairs. She has so much vitality.”

” Ah yes,” I said, ” she is very beautiful.”

I had noticed her, of course, the very moment I entered the ballroom; she was in pale mauve chiffon over an underskirt of green; she evidently had a passion for chiffon and such dinging materials, and it was understandable considering her figure; she wore quantities of diamonds. The mauve toning down the green was exquisite and I wondered

whether my own vivid j emerald was not a little blatant compared with hers. She looked outstandingly beautiful, as she would in any assembly.

He nodded, a little sadly I thought.

And as I sat talking, my eyes, wandering round the hall, went suddenly to the peep high in the wall, that star-shaped opening which merged so perfectly into the murals that none would have guessed it was there.

Someone was watching the ball through the peep, but it was impossible to see who it was.

I thought: Of course it is Alvean. Did she not always watch the ball through the peep? Then I was suddenly startled for, as I was sitting there, watching the dancers, I saw Alvean. I had forgotten that this was a special occasion—Christmas Day—and just as, on such a day, the governess might come to the ball, so might Alvean.

She was dressed in a white muslin dress with a wide blue sash and I saw that she wore the silver whip pinned to the bodice of her dress.

All these things I noticed with half my attention. I looked swiftly up to the peep. The face, unrecognisable, indefinable, was still there.

Supper was served in the dining room and the punch room. There was a buffet in both these rooms and guests helped themselves, for according to custom the servants on this day of days were having their own ball in their own hall.

I saw, that these people who so rarely waited on themselves now found it quite good fun to do so. Piled on dishes were the results of all that kitchen activity; small pies of various kinds, called here pasties—not the enormous ones which were eaten frequently in the kitchen, but dainty ones. There were slices of beef, and chicken and fish of various descriptions. There was a great bowl of hot punch; another of mulled wine; there was mead, whisky and sloe gin.

Peter Nansellock, with whom I had had the supper dance, led me into the punch room. Sir Thomas Treslyn was already there with Celestine, and Peter led me to the table at which they were sitting.

” Leave it to me,” he said. ” I’ll feed you all” I said: ” Allow me to help you.”

“Nonsense,” he replied.

“You. remain with Celeste.” He whispered banteringly: ” You’re not the governess tonight, Miss Leigh; you’re a lady like the rest of them. Don’t forget it; then no one else will. “

But I was determined that I would not be waited on and I insisted on going to the buffet with him, ” Pride,” he murmured, slipping his hand through my arm. ” Wasn’t that the sin by which fell the angels?”

” It may have been ambition; I am not sure.”

” Well, I’ll warrant you’re not without a dash of that either. Never mind. What will you eat? Perhaps it is as well you came. Our Cornish food often seems odd to you foreigners from the other side of the Tamar.”

He began loading one of the trays which had been put there in readiness.

” Which sort of pie will you have? Giblet, squab, nattling or muggety?

Ha, here’s taddage too. I can recommend the squab: layers of apple and bacon, onions and mutton and young pigeon. The most delicious Cornish fare. “

” I’m ready to try it,” I said.

” Miss Leigh,” he went on, ” Martha … has anyone ever told you that your eyes are like amber?”

” Yes,” I answered.

” Has anyone ever told you you’re beautiful?”

“No.”

“Then that oversight should be and is’re citified immediately.”

I laughed and at that moment Connan came into the room with Lady Treslyn.

She sat down with Celestine, and Connan came over to the buffet.

“I am enlightening Miss Leigh about our Cornish food. She doesn’t know what a fair maid’ is. Is that not odd. Con, seeing that she is one herself?”

Connan looked excited; his eyes smiling into mine were warm. He said:

” Fair maids, Miss Leigh, is another name for pilchards served like this with oil and lemon.” He took a fork and put some on two plates. ” It is a contraction of the old Spanish fumado, and we always say here that it is food fit for a Spanish don.”

” A relic, Miss Leigh,” interrupted Peter, ” of those days when the Spaniards raided our shores and took too great an interest in another kind of fair maid.”

Alvean had come in and was standing beside me. I thought she looked tired.

” You should be in bed,” I said.

” I’m hungry,” she told me.

” After supper we’ll go up.”

She nodded and with sleepy pleasure she piled food on a plate.

We sat round the table, Alvean, Peter, Celestine, Sir Thomas, Connan and Lady Treslyn.

It seemed like a dream that I should be there with them. Alice’s brooch glittered on my dress, and I thought: Thus, two years ago, she would have sat . as I am sitting now. Alvean would not have been here then; she would have been too young to have been allowed to come, but apart from that and the fact that I was in Alice’s place, it must have been very like other occasions. I wondered if any of the others thought this.

I remembered the face I had seen at the peep, and what Alvean had said on the night of that other ball. I could not remember the exact words but I knew that it had been some thing about her mother’s love of dancing and how, if she came back, she would come to a ball. Then Alvean had half-hoped to see her among the dancers. What if she watched from another place? I thought of that ghostly solarium in moonlight and I said to myself: ” Whose face did I see at the peep?”

Then I thought: Gilly! What if it were Gilly? It must have been Gilly.

Who else could it have been?

My attention was brought back to the group at the table when Connan said: ” I’ll get you some more whisky, Tom.” He rose and went to the buffet. Lady Treslyn got up quickly and went to him. I found it difficult to take my eyes from them. I thought how distinguished they looked she in green shaded mauve draperies, the most beautiful woman at the ball and he, surely the most distinguished of the men.

” I’ll help you, Connan,” she said, and I heard them laughing together.

” Look out,” said Connan, ” we’re spilling it.”

They had their backs to us, and as I watched them I thought that with the slightest provocation I could have burst into tears because now I dearly saw the ridiculousness of my hopes.

She had slipped her arm through his as they came back to the table.

The intimate gesture wounded me deeply. I suppose I had drunk too much of the mead, or metheglin as they called it. Mead. It was such a soft and gentle name. But the mead which was made at Mount Mellyn was very potent.

I said to myself coldly: It is time you retired.

As he gave the glass to Sir Thomas—who emptied it with a speed which surprised me—I noticed that there were smudges of shadow under Alvean’s eyes, and I said: ” Alvean, you look tired. You should be in bed.”

” Poor child!” cried Celestine at once. ” And she only just recovering….”

I rose. ” I will take Alvean to bed now,” I said. ” Come along, Alvean.”

She was half-asleep already and made no protest but rose meekly to her feet.

” I will say good night to you all,” I said.

Peter rose to his feet. ” We’ll see you later,” he said.

I did not answer. I was desperately trying not to look at Connan, for I felt he was not aware of me; that he would never be aware of anyone when Lady Treslyn was near.

” Au revoir,” said Peter, and as the others echoed the words absentmindedly I went out of the punch room, holding Alvean by the hand.

I felt as Cinderella must have felt with the striking of the midnight hour.

My brief glory was over. Lady Treslyn had made me realise how foolish I had been to dream.

Alvean was asleep before I felt her room. I tried not to think of Connan and Lady Treslyn while I went to my room and lighted the candles on my dressing table. I looked attractive; there was no doubt of it. Then. I said to myself. Anyone looks attractive by candlelight.

The diamonds winked back at me, and I was immediately reminded of the face I had seen at the peep.

I thought afterwards that I must have drunk too freely of the metheglin, because on impulse I went down to the landing below my own.

I could hear the shouts coming from the servants’ hall. So they were still merry-making down there. The door to Gilly’s room was ajar, and I went in. There was enough moonlight for me to see that the child was in her bed, but sitting up, awake.

” Gilly,” I said.

” Madam!” she cried and her voice was joyful. ” I knew you’d come tonight.”

” Gilly, you know who this is.” What had made me say such a foolish thing?

She nodded.

” I’m going to light your candle,” I said, and I did so.

Her eyes regarded my face with that blank blue stare, and came to rest on the brooch. I sat on the edge of the bed. I knew that when I had first come in she had thought I was someone else.

She was contented though, which showed the confidence she was beginning to feel in me.

I touched the brooch and said: ” Once it was Mrs. TreMellyn’s.”

She smiled and nodded.

I said : ” You spoke when I came in. Why do you not speak to me now?”

She merely smiled.

” Gilly,” I said, ” were you at the peep in the solarium tonight? Were you watching the dancers?”

She nodded.

” Gilly, say Yes.”

” ” Yes,” said Gilly.

” You were up there all alone? You weren’t afraid?”

She shook her head and smiled.

” You mean no, don’t you, Gilly? Say no.”

” ” No. “

” Why weren’t you afraid?”

She opened her mouth and smiled. Then she said: “Not afraid because .”

” Because?” I said eagerly.

“Because,” she repeated.

” Gilly,” I said. ” Were you alone up there?”

She smiled and I could get her to say no more.

After a while I kissed her and she returned my kiss. She was fond of me, I knew. I believed that in her mind she confused me with someone else, and I knew who that person was.

Back in my room I did not want to take off my dress. I felt that as long as I wore it, I could still hope for what I knew to be impossible.

So I sat by my window for an hour or so. It was a warm night and I was comfortable with my silk shawl about me.

I heard some of the guests coming out to their carriages. I heard the exchange of goodbyes.

And while I was there I heard Lady Treslyn’s voice. Her voice was low and vibrant, but she spoke with such intensity that I caught every syllable and I knew to whom she was speaking.

She said: ” Connan, it can’t be long now. It won’t be long-Next morning when Kitty brought my water, she did not come alone. Daisy was with her. I heard their raucous voices mingling and, in my half-waking state, thought they sounded like the gulls.

” Morning, Miss.”

They wanted me to wake up quickly; they had exciting news. I saw that in their faces.

“Miss …” they were both speaking together, both determined to be the one to impart the startling information, “last night … or rather this morning …”

Then Kitty rushed on ahead of her sister: ” Sir Thomas Treslyn was taken bad on the way home. He was dead when they got to Treslyn Hall.”

I sat up in bed, looking from one excited face to the other. One of the guests . dead! I was shocked. But this was no ordinary death, no ordinary death.

I realised, no less than Kitty and Daisy, what such news could mean to Mount Mellyn.

Sir Thomas Treslyn was buried on New Year’s Day.

During the preceding week gloom had settled on the house, and it was all the more noticeable because it followed on the heels of the Christmas festivities. All the decorations had been left about the house, and there was divided opinion as to which was the more unlucky—to remove them before Twelfth Night or to leave them up and thereby show lack of respect.

They all appeared to consider that the death touched us closely. He had died between our house and his own; our table was the last at which he had sat. I realised that the Cornish were a very superstitious people, constantly on the alert for omens, eager to placate supernatural and malignant powers.

Connan was absentminded. I saw little of him, but when I did he seemed scarcely aware of my presence. I imagined he was considering all that this meant to him. If he and Lady Treslyn had been lovers there was no obstacle now to their regula rising their union. I knew that this thought was in the minds of many, but no one spoke of it. I guessed that Mrs. Polgrey would consider it unlucky to do so until Sir Thomas had been buried for some weeks.

Mrs. Polgrey called me to her room and we had a cup of Earl Grey laced with a spoonful of the whisky I had given her.

” This is a shocking thing,” she said. ” Sir Thomas to die on Christmas Day as he did. Although ‘tweren’t Christmas Day but Boxing Day morning,” she added in a. slightly relieved tone, as though this made the situation a little less shocking. ” And to think,” she went on, reverting to her original gloom, ” that ours was the last house he rested in, my food was the last that passed his lips! The funeral is a bit soon, do you. not think, Miss?”

I began to count the days on my fingers. ” Seven days,” I said.

” They could have kept him longer, seeing it’s winter.”

” I suppose they feel that the sooner it’s over the sooner they’ll recover from the shock.”

She herself looked shocked indeed. I think she thought it was disrespectful or unlucky to suggest that anyone would want to recover quickly from their grief.

” I don’t know,” she said, ” you hear tales of people being buried alive. I remember years ago, when I was a child, there was a smallpox epidemic. People panicked and buried quick. It was said that some was buried alive.”

” There is surely no doubt that Sir Thomas is dead.”

” Some seem dead and are not dead, after all. Still seven days should be long enough to tell. You’ll come to the funeral with me, Miss?”

“I?”

” But why not? I think we should show proper respect to the dead.”

” I have no mourning clothes.”

” My dear life, I’ll find a bonnet for ‘ee. I’ll give ‘ee a black band to sew on your cloak. Reckon that ‘ud be all right if we were just at the grave.

“Twouldn’t do for ‘ee to go into the church like, but then ‘(wouldn’t be right either … you being the governess here, and them having so many friends as will attend to fill Mellyn Church to the full.”

So it was agreed that I should accompany Mrs. Polgrey to the churchyard.

I was present when Sir Thomas’s body was lowered into the tomb.

It was an impressive ceremony, for the funeral had been a magnificent one in accordance with the Treslyn’s rank in the duchy. Crowds attended, but Mrs. Polgrey and I hovered only in the distance. I was glad of this; she deplored it.

It was enough for me to see the widow in flowing black draperies yet looking as beautiful as she ever had. Her lovely face was just visible among the flowing black, which seemed to become her even as green and mauve had on the night of the Christmas ball.

She moved with grace and she looked even more slender in her black than in the brilliant colours I had seen her wear, intensely feminine and appealing.

Connan was there, and I thought how elegant and distinguished he looked; I tried to fathom the expression on his face that I might discover his feelings. But he was determined to hide those feelings from the world; and I thought, in the circumstances, that was Just as well.

I watched the hearse with the large waving black plumes and I saw the coffin, carried by six bearers and covered with velvet palls of deep purple and black, taken into the church. I saw the banks of flowers and the mourners in their deathly black, the only colour being the white handkerchiefs which the women held to their eyes—and they had wide black borders.

A cold wind had swept the mists away and the winter sun shone brightly on the gilt of the coffin as it was lowered into the grave.

There was a deep silence in the churchyard, broken only by the sudden cry of gulls.

It was over and the mourners, Connan, Celestine and Peter among them, went back to their carriages which wound their way to Treslyn Hall.

Mrs. Polgrey and I returned to Mount Mellyn, where she insisted on the usual cup of tea and its accompaniment.

We sat drinking, and her eyes glittered. I knew she was finding it difficult to restrain her tongue. But ‘she said nothing of the effect this death might have on us all at Mount Mellyn. So great was her respect for the dead.

Sir Thomas was not forgotten. I heard his name mentioned often during the next few weeks. Mrs. Polgrey shook her head significantly when the Treslyns were mentioned, but her eyes were sharp and full of warning.

Daisy and Kitty were less discreet. When they brought my water in the mornings they would linger. I was a little cunning, I think. I longed to know what people were saying but I did n not want to ask, yet I managed to draw them out without, I hoped, seeming to do so.

It was true they did not need a lot of encouragement.

” I saw Lady Treslyn yesterday,” Daisy told me, one morning. ” Her didn’t look like a widow, in spite of the weeds.”

” Oh? In what way?”

” Don’tee ask me. Miss. She was quite pale and not smiling, but I could see something in her face … if you do get my meaning.”

” I’m afraid I don’t.”

” Kit were with me. She said the same. Like as though she were waiting and content because she wouldn’t have to wait long. A year though.

Seems a long time to me. “

” A year? What for?” I asked, although I knew very well what for.

Daisy looked at me and giggled.

“” Twon’t do for them to be seeing too much of each other for a bit, will it, Miss. After all, him dying here. almost on our doorstep.

“Twould seem as though they’d almost willed him to it.”

” Oh, Daisy, that’s absurd. How could anybody?”

” Well, that’s what you can’t say till you know, ‘twould seem.”

The conversation was getting dangerous. I dismissed her with ” I must hurry. I see I’m rather late.”

When she had gone, I thought: So there is talk about them. They are saying he was willed to die.

As long as that’s all they say, that won’t do much harm.

I wondered how careful they were being. I remembered hearing Phillida say that people in love behaved like ostriches. They buried their heads in the sand and thought, because they saw no one, no one saw them.

But they were not two inexperienced lovers.

No, I thought bitterly, it is clear that both are very experienced.

They knew the people among whom they lived. They would be careful.

It was later that day, when I was in the woods, that I heard the sound of horses’ hoofs walking nearby and then I heard Lady Treslyn say : ” Connan. Oh, Connan! ” They had met then . and to meet as near the house as this was surely foolish.

In the woods their voices carried. The trees hid me, but snatches of their conversation came to me.

“Linda! You shouldn’t have come.”

” I know … I know….” Her voice fell and I could not hear the rest.

” To send that message …” That was Connan. I could hear him more clearly than her, perhaps because I knew his voice so well. ” Your messenger will have been seen by some of the servants. You know how they gossip.”

” I know, but …”

“When did this come … ?”

” This morning. I had to show it to you right away.”

” It’s the first?”

” No, there was one two days ago. That’s why I had to see you, Connan.