"But, Mrs. Wharnecliffe, why should she take possession of him as she's doing? He never knew her before he came here, she's not going to let him take that house, she says. She wants to build him one of her own planning." "Thorold is not a weak boy, my dear Gentian. He will please himself. He is a man who has decided opinions of his own, and is not easily influenced by others, as I have found to my cost." "No," said Gentian, suddenly becoming quiet and rather despondent, "he's like a granite wall, and if you beat your head against him, you'll only break it, and not hurt him. Sometimes I think Cousin Thor has no feeling at all! Just once—now and then—very seldom, his eyes betray him!" She stopped herself and relapsed into silence. What did that look of his mean? And what was he going to say when Miss Muir had so inopportunely interrupted them? Mrs. Wharnecliffe glanced at her anxiously. She never could understand the girl, but she was fond of her. Her contradictions moods and irrelevant talk bewildered her. What a creature of impulse she was! Even her late sorrow had not steadied her, and yet how nobly she had stood by her sick friend in her last illness! How wonderfully patient and capable she had become! "I think, my dear, you had better go and change your dress. Dinner is at the early hour of seven here. Thorold was to dine with us. Where has he gone?" "Off to his old mine. There's something gone wrong." Mrs. Wharnecliffe sighed. "I always feel he will ruin himself over this project. It is such a risk!" Gentian left the room, murmuring to herself: "If she hadn't interrupted us! Oh, if she only hadn't!" CHAPTER XII THOROLD'S SECRET THOROLD appeared just in time for dinner, which was served in a quaint coffee-room overlooking the garden. Gentian, in a filmy black gown which accentuated the fairness of her neck and arms, began the meal in a quiet, pensive mood. She let Mrs. Wharnecliffe and Thorold do most of the conversation, and listened to Thorold's account of some of the difficulties which now beset him. "I think we shall get over the present difficulty," he said. "We have been trying to adapt some of the old machinery; it means a good bit of extra expense to have new, but we must do so. I have been wondering whether I have brought you down on a fool's errand, for I doubt if it will be wise for me at present to take that house. I must go slowly." "You must live somewhere," said Mrs. Wharnecliffe. "A single man doesn't need so much accommodation." "Miss Muir doesn't want you to go there," struck in Gentian with rather a sharp tone in her voice; "she wants you to build one close to the Rectory and the mine." "Yes," said Thorold, with a smile; "Frances thinks I should be too far away from my work." "As if you're going to work in the mine!" said Gentian a little scornfully. Then the dimples came into her cheeks and she gave a little laugh.