Mrs. Wharnecliffe turned to speak to her chauffeur, and Gentian's eyes suddenly became soft and grave. "I want to speak to you alone," she said to Thorold. "We will walk down the road," he said. "I hope you have no fresh difficulties about the house?" She shook her head. "No, no. It is this. I have taken advantage of your kindness. I have claimed cousinship with you in a letter to a friend, and I thought I had better tell you." "That is what I hoped you would do," said Thorold. She clasped and reclasped her hands rather nervously. "It is Mr. Paget who has made it necessary. He is too rapid, too dictatorial, he sweeps me off my feet, and he wrote to me as if I were quite alone and forlorn in the world, and he said he wanted me to meet his parents, that they were very anxious to make my acquaintance, that they were staying in London and he was much disappointed that I had left town so soon. He expected me to come up at once and see him—to-morrow—and then he hoped I would come and stay with them in the North, but though he did not say it, I felt his parents would not invite me on a visit, unless they saw me and liked me; and I am not accustomed to that sort of thing. It is not for me to go to them for inspection, I prefer they come to me, and I do not want to be bothered with his parents at present. I am very happy here, and I shall be too busy earning my living soon to be paying visits in the North. So I wrote and said I might not be visiting London again for a long while; that I had a cousin down here, and that I was making my home here for the time. Do you mind? I hope not. I shall be using you as a buffer when occasion requires." Thorold smiled. "Ah, yes! I told you that, did I not? Very wise of you. I think I had better make acquaintance with this young fellow, and let him see that you must be treated with respect." "Oh," said Gentian airily; "that is not necessary. I can keep him in his place. I would be friends with no one who did not show me respect." Her little head rose a good inch higher as she spoke. "Mrs. Wharnecliffe must invite him down," Thorold said in his quiet determined manner. "I forget whether you are formally engaged to him or not?" "You cannot forget, for you have never been told," flashed forth Gentian; and then she made him a little graceful foreign bow, and turned back to the car. Mrs. Wharnecliffe saw from Thorold's amused eyes and the girl's heightened colour, that there had been a few words between them, and Gentian soon enlightened her. "My cousin Thorold is a little too inquisitive," she said presently. "He thinks he has a right to know all my friends. And I see no reason for it. But I would like you to know Jim Paget, he is an Englishman and has a home I think something like yours. And he wants to see me, but it is not comme il faut for me to fly to him. He must fly to me. Would it be presuming on your kindness to ask you to receive him one day? And I could fetch him from the station in my car."