"Well, if you'll give me long odds I will bet you that the Bradshaw asks you to--to be his 'ABC' before the end of the season," said Archie. "My dear, what nonsense!" said she, with a sudden thrill of pleasure. "What can have put that into your head?" "I can see it. That's the way a man like the Bradshaw looks at a girl when his--his affections are engaged. He looks as if a very dear aunt was dead. He has _amour triste_." That certainly hit off a type of gaze to which Helena felt that she had been subjected, and she laughed. "Well, I'll give you five to one in half-crowns," she said. "Don't. Some day I shall have twelve and sixpence." They turned and cantered back along the soft track. The dew of night had not yet vanished from the grass, and the geometric looking plane-leaves, the rhododendrons, and the flower-beds were still varnished with moisture, and, early though it was, riders and foot-passengers were plentiful. Probably the day would be hot, for the heat haze, purplish-brown in the distance, was beginning to form in the air, softly veiling the further view. Presently they dropped again into a walking-pace, and Helena, whose mind had been busy on Archie's description of a certain sort of love-lorn look, spoke of a subject suggested by it. "How do you think Jessie is?" she asked. "That's exactly what my mother asked me last night," said he. "She's rather silent and preoccupied, isn't she?" "That struck me," said the girl. "I thought perhaps she wasn't very well, but she told me there was nothing the matter. Darling Jessie is so reserved. She never tells me anything. Certainly she looks well: do you think she has anything on her mind?" "I don't see what she could have. But it's odd that it has struck all of us." Helena sighed and shook her head with a pretty, unreproachful air. "I sometimes wish that Jessie would make more of a friend of me," she said. "I try so hard to get close to her, but all the time I feel she is keeping me at arm's length. It would be lovely to have a sister who would admit me to her own, own self. But I always have to tap, so to speak, at Jessie's door, and she so often says she won't open it." "Was she always like that?" asked Archie, seeing that Helena's eyes were dim and bright. "Yes, but lately I think it has been worse. I wish Jessie would let me in. However, I am always waiting, and I think Jessie knows that. It is no use pressing for confidence, is it? One can only wait."