And then about the middle of July it came. A telegram was handed to him as he was starting to meet his manager at the mine, one morning about ten o'clock. It was very brief. "I want you—Gentian." He flung a few things into his suit-case, borrowed Mr. Muir's car and caught the morning express from Liskeard to town. She had wired to him from a country inn just outside Maidenhead. He did not get there till about six o'clock. The landlady came to the door at once. "You'll be the young lady's cousin or guardian, so she tells me. She ought to be in bed, but she's on the couch in the best parlour. Come this way, please." "Is she ill—an accident—what is the matter? "The doctor says 'tis a marvel: she's escaped with bruises and a sprained wrist. She was pitched right out of the car, and found underneath it." "Who was with her?" "Nobody, she drove herself down from town, and turning a corner ran into some felled trees. I always do say that for a reckless driver, give me a young lady!" Thorold said nothing. He followed her to a small dingy parlour at the back of the house, and there, covered with an old plaid shawl, upon a horsehair couch, lay Gentian. An ugly bruise and plastered cut on her forehead and a bandaged wrist were the only evidences of her accident, but she looked white and shaken, and could only faintly smile as she looked up at him. "I knew you would come. I told the landlady so." He stood looking down upon her with his kind eyes. "Do your friends know where you are?" "No. I have run away from them." It was so like Gentian, that Thorold could have smiled, had he been less concerned about her. And then she held out her unhurt hand to him, and when she had got hold of his hand, clutched it as if she could never let it go, and burst into a flood of tears. He stood silent beside her, for he knew that her tears would relieve her, and then he said gently: "Don't bother to talk. I'll wait to be told things till you're feeling better, but I must let Mrs. St. Lucas know where you are, and I would like to see the doctor." "Don't tell Mrs. St. Lucas, don't! He will come down and make a fuss. We were going up to Chester and York—a kind of tour—and I won't go, and he'll be angry." She was struggling to get the better of her tears. "I must wire to relieve their anxiety, but I won't say where you are. I will say you are returning home with me. I will write later when you can give me details." He left the room. He was always prompt and practical. When he returned, he had seen the doctor, wired to Mrs. St. Lucas, and ordered a nice little dinner to be sent into the parlour for himself and Gentian. He had also got a room for himself at an hotel in Maidenhead. He found Gentian looking much better and brighter. "It's all right now you are here," she said, "I'm ready to explain all." "Not yet. We will have some food first. What a fortunate thing you were so near this inn!"