"Yes; one of the ostlers heard the crash and ran out. It was only just round the corner. Such a corner! They ought to have put up warning lights, but I suppose I was reckless—I felt so." She could not eat much, she said her head was bad, but she drank a cup of tea, and she looked up at him pathetically when he helped her back to the couch. "If only I was feeling well, how much we could enjoy ourselves!" she said. A little later the meal was carried away, and then he drew up a chair to her side, and with her hand lightly clasping his she told her story. "Do you know Mr. Buchan? He is very amusing, and alive to his finger-tips, and he's a passionate, magnificent violinist. He loves his violin like nothing in the world, and he amuses himself with everybody else. He liked me, and he was awfully nice, and respectful and courteous, and all he ought to be, until we had finished our London recitals. Then he was tired and his nerves were on edge, and he would take me about to places I did not like, and he began to take liberties, called me by my Christian name, and was always taking hold of me, and talking in a silly inane fashion. He thought I liked it, until one day I made myself very angry and showed him that I did not intend to be treated so. Then he did it to tease me. "The night before last, Mrs. St. Lucas had a dinner engagement somewhere, and I was feeling tired. I had not been in bed before two or three in the morning for a whole week. He came in about dinner time and wanted me to go to the Ritz with him. I refused, and then he said he should stay at home with me. I am quite sure he took too much whisky at dinner, for when he came into the drawing-room afterwards, he reeked of it, and he began to be most objectionable, calling me his 'darling girl' and trying to kiss me. I walked straight away from him and locked myself up in my bedroom. "Mrs. St. Lucas came home very late, so I determined to tell her about it in the morning. I did not know quite what to do, for she had made all arrangements to go to Vienna, and of course Mr. Buchan was going too, and I suddenly felt sick and disgusted with it all. I hardly slept—worrying through things and not seeing how I could back out of it, or get away from them. Then in the morning I heard from Mrs. St. Lucas' maid when she called me that Mrs. St. Lucas had gone down to Richmond with a party of friends for the day. It was just like her. She left a message saying she would be back early in the evening. I asked the maid if Mr. Buchan were out or in, and she gave me a note from him." Gentian paused, then with her head held very proudly, she went on: