Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed. [Illustration: Gentian. _A Girl and Her Ways_ _Frontispiece_] A GIRL AND HER WAYS BY AMY LE FEUVRE WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED LONDON AND MELBOURNE MADE IN ENGLAND Printed In Great Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd., Frome and London CONTENTS CHAP. I AN INVASION II THE YOUNG GUEST III THE HOUSE THAT WAS WAITING IV JIM PAGET V AN UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE VI A FRESH PROPOSITION VII A PRIVATE CHAUFFEUR VIII THE DAY IN THE NEW FOREST IX DARK CLOUDS X LEFT ALONE XI A VISIT TO CORNWALL XII THOROLD'S SECRET XIII A NEW FRIEND XIV "I WANT YOU" XV THEIR GOLDEN TIME A GIRL AND HER WAYS CHAPTER I AN INVASION HE sat back in his easy chair, pipe in mouth, and newspaper on his knee. The lashing wind and rain outside added to his sense of comfort. He was unassailable, he knew, from all unpleasant elements. A bright wood fire burned on the open hearth. His room was lined with books, for he was a book lover. Everything around him was for use and not for ornament. Some oil portraits hung on the walls, members of the Holt family; but there was no china, no flowers, and no signs of a woman's hand and taste in his room. Thorold Holt was now nearer forty than thirty. He had a lean, sinewy frame, his close-cropped dark head was already streaked with grey, and at times there was a weary look about his grey eyes which belied his habitual cheeriness. People who knew him best said that his sense of humour was natural, but his cheeriness a manufactured article. He had had a hard life, and found it difficult to believe that at last his hard times were over. An interruption came now to his solitude. The door opened, and his one manservant appeared. "Two ladies to see you, sir. I have shown them into the drawing-room." "Oh these females!" muttered Thorold with real annoyance. "Even rain doesn't keep them indoors. A begging appeal, I suppose." He knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and rose discontentedly from his seat. He went out into a square hall, tiled in black and white stone underfoot, and crossed it, entering into a very stiff and stately-looking drawing-room, with early Victorian relics, besides some really good bits of antique furniture. Two women sat awaiting him. One he recognized as his rector's wife. He wondered she had not given her name, but he had only met her once before. She addressed him promptly.