"
"Don't!" she cried sharply. "I must have been utterly, miserably mad!"
"Even the greatest of schemers have their wild moments," he remarked
consolingly. "This was one of yours. You paid me a very poor
compliment, by the bye, to imagine that an insignificant creature like
that--"
"Will you--leave off?" she moaned.
"I daresay," he continued after a moment's pause, "that you find him
now quite an inconvenient person to deal with."
She shuddered.
"Oh, I am paying for my folly, if that is what you mean," she
declared. "He knows--who I am--that he was deceived. He follows me
about--everywhere."
Wingrave glanced out of the carriage window.
"Unless I am very much surprised," he answered, "he is following us
now!"
She came a little closer to him.
"You won't leave me? Promise!"
"I will see you home," he answered.
"You are coming on to Hereford House."
"I think not," he answered; "I have had enough of society for one
evening."
"Emily will be there later," she said quietly.
"Even Lady Emily," he answered, "will not tempt me. I will see you
safely inside. Afterwards, if your persistent follower is hanging
about, I will endeavor to talk him into a more reasonable frame of
mind."
She was silent for a moment. Then she turned to him abruptly.
"You are more kind to me sometimes than I deserve, Wingrave," she
remarked.
"It is not kindness," he answered. "I dislike absurd situations.
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