Ah! how she would have altered her tone, had she known _why_ I took any interest in the Château des Roses or its master! ‘Tessie, how can you!’ I cried, with burning cheeks. ‘Now, I shall take Mr. Sandilands in exactly the opposite direction, over the trout stream and through the valley of Artois!’ ‘But I saw that as I came in the diligence yesterday,’ said Charlie. ‘Then there are a dozen other walks, all prettier than the one I first mentioned, for me to introduce you to. But I want to take you right away from the town to some place where we can talk privately of all that has happened since we last met.’ ‘In three months!’ sneered Cave Charteris. When I say he ‘sneered,’ I mean that he spoke the words unpleasantly, and as though he would have liked to laugh, had he dared, at what I said. ‘And why not?’ I returned. ‘A great deal of consequence may occur in that time. It is long enough to make or mar a life; why should I not find sufficient has happened in it to interest my friend for the length of a walk?’ ‘Everything that happens to you is of interest to me, Hilda,’ exclaimed Charlie, with boyish fervour. ‘I knew that before I spoke! Mr. Charteris must have few friends worthy the name if he did not know it also!’ ‘I am not so fortunate as Miss Marsh,’ replied that gentleman. ‘No one takes such an interest in me.’ ‘Not those at home,’ remarked Ange, pitifully. The little maid had crept into the _salle_ a few minutes after myself. Charteris turned and looked searchingly into her blushing face. ‘No, I am afraid not even “those at home,” Miss Lovett. But how can I expect it? I am not Miss Hilda Marsh.’ ‘Even I have been forgotten by those I thought my friends,’ I remarked quietly. ‘But never by my mother nor me,’ said Charlie, in an eager tone. ‘I know that, Charlie, without your telling me. But now go back to the hotel and get your _goûter_, and I will be ready for walking on your return.’ ‘How I wish some one would take me for a walk,’ observed Mr. Charteris, with a professional sigh, as Charlie disappeared. _Petite_ Ange said nothing, but she sighed also. END OF VOL. II. BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, SURREY. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES ● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. ● Enclosed blackletter font in =equals=.