The other grunted--he also had recognised a girl in mauve; and Kent watched her silently as long as she remained in view. He knew that he had nerves when he saw Miss Walford. The sight of her aroused a feeling of restlessness in him latterly which demanded her society for its relief; and he had not denied to himself that when a stranger, sitting behind him yesterday in the salon de lecture, had withdrawn a handkerchief redolent of the corylopsis which Miss Walford affected, it had provided him with a sensation profoundly absurd. If he had nerves, however, there was no occasion to parade the fact, and he repressed impatience laudably. It was half an hour before the ladies were met. Objecting to be foolish, he felt, nevertheless, that Cynthia Walford was an excuse for folly as she turned to him on the terrace with her faint smile of greeting; felt, with unreasoning gratification, that Turquand must acknowledge it. She was a fair, slight girl, with dreamy blue eyes bewitchingly lashed, and lips so delicately modelled that the faint smile always appeared a great tribute upon them. She was no less beautiful for her manifest knowledge that she was a beauty, and though she could not have been more than twenty-two, she had the air of carrying her loveliness as indifferently as her frocks--which tempted a literary man to destruction. She accepted admiration like an entremets at a table d'hôte--something included in the menu and arriving as a matter of course; but her acceptance was so graceful that it was delightful to bend to her and offer it. Kent asked if they were going in to the concert, and Mrs. Walford said they were not. It was far too warm to sit indoors to listen to that kind of music! She found Dieppe insufferably hot, and ridiculously over-rated. Now, Trouville was really lively; didn't he think so? He said he did not know Trouville. "Don't you? Oh, it is ever so much better; very jolly--really most jolly. We were there last year, and enjoyed it immensely. We--we had such a time!" She giggled loudly. "How long are you gentlemen remaining?" "Mr. Turquand is 'deserting' to-morrow," he said. "I? Oh, I shall have to leave in about a week, I'm afraid." "You said that a week ago," murmured Miss Walford. "I like the place," he confessed; "I find it very pleasant, myself." Mrs. Walford threw up her hands with a scream of expostulation. Her face was elderly, despite her attentions to it, but in her manner she was often a great deal more youthful than her daughter; indeed, while the girl had already acquired something of the serenity of a woman, the woman was superficially reverting to the artlessness of a girl. "What is there to like? Dieppe is the Casino, and the Casino is Dieppe!" "But the Casino is very agreeable," he said, his glance wandering from her. "And the charges are perfectly monstrous. Though, of course, you extravagant young men don't mind that!"