"Let him!" snapped Josephine, opening the throttle. "Some men are the limit. Fancy all those children. Disgusting, I call it. Why, the eldest was fourteen, if she was a day." "_She_ looked idiotically young," said Alicia. "Probably their step-mother. Didn't she look daggers when we walked in! I suppose she is his wife?" "'Course she is; didn't you see her wedding ring? I spotted it when that kid upset his cup and she started mopping up the mess. 'Course she's his wife." "H'm," was the comment of the sporting Alicia. 5 Graeme Jakes accompanied his guests as far as the gateway to Glebe Farm when finally they departed. The sun was dipping behind the hills and rabbits were showing themselves along the lane; it was a golden evening of incredible peacefulness, but in Graeme's mind a shadow of remorse lingered. "Look here, Miss Mayne," he began awkwardly when a temporary absence of the children, who had run to greet the farm terrier, made intimate speech possible. "I'm awfully sorry for the stupid mistake that Smedley girl made. I feel I am really to blame, although nothing was further from my mind----" Miss Mayne was silent and Graeme shot a swift glance at her profile which, beyond enabling him to note that her eyelashes were long and curved up a little at the tips, afforded him no comfort. They walked a few paces through clouds of jigging gnats. "Shall we not talk about it any more?" said Miss Mayne at length. "I don't want to talk about it. I only wanted to reassure you, in case you might feel any annoyance. You see, they'll have found out the truth by now. They certainly won't waste time making inquiries----" He smiled grimly. "And if anything more comes of it, the worst will be a visit of apology to you from the pair of 'em." He crinkled his eyes in the sunset light and scanned the figures of the children ahead of them. "Why!" he murmured. "Of course it's absurd! It's comic! Fancy me----" and stopped on delicate ground. Miss Mayne smiled too. "I hope I shall be spared apologies. As long as they realise at once---- As you say----" She hesitated and drove the point home. "The idea is--comic! And," she added graciously, "I'm not in the least angry with you." So ended Graeme's party. He retraced his steps, puffing furiously at his pipe, jolted out of the accustomed orbit of his thoughts as completely as a maiden after her first dance.