"It would scarcely be civil to walk on," he said smiling. "I will tell you the rest another time, Miss Wentworth." She looked almost brilliantly pretty, but a trifle resentful when the others came up. Florence, not unnaturally, felt slightly indignant, and even Mrs Wyngate decided that the girl must be silly as well as spoilt. For Imogen took no trouble to conceal her annoyance. "Can she really be so foolish as to imagine Major Winchester finds her society interesting?" thought the matron of the party, while Florence mentally decided that Imogen's innocence and timidity were not of a kind to "last." "She will soon develop into a self-conceited little flirt," reflected the elder girl; "all the more danger if she falls into bad hands. I foresee no sinecure if I am to look after her." But she exerted herself to be amusing and agreeable, and to keep the party together. "Poor Rex!" she thought, "I daresay it's almost as hard upon him to look cheerful as it is upon me. I mustn't be selfish, either." The caves were not bad caves in their way, and child as she really was, Imogen soon forgot her vexation in the fun of exploring their dark recesses. She ran on laughingly, declaring that she must go to "the very end," and Rex, who knew every nook and cranny, contented himself with a "Don't let her do anything foolish," to Oliver, who was doing the honours to Mrs Wyngate, and then returned to the entrance, where it was rather a refreshment to him to find Florence, and to walk up and down with her, with the liberty of talking or not as they felt inclined. CHAPTER SIX. THE PLOT THICKENS. "You're not cold, I hope, Florence," he said suddenly, waking up out of a brown study. "Oh no, it is never very cold just here; the rocks shelter us," she said. "Besides, I am well used to it, and well wrapped up. I only hope your _protegee_ won't catch cold," she added, somewhat uneasily. "I should get into a scrape both with her mother and my own." "She's right enough," he replied, with the slightest possible accent of impatience, which did not altogether displease his companion. "There's really less risk of catching cold in caves in winter than in summer, when it's hot outside." Then he relapsed into silence. After a minute or two Florence spoke again. "Rex," she began, half timidly, "I didn't like to ask you before-- indeed, I've hardly seen you to-day, but, at breakfast, I saw when you got your letters. Was there anything new, anything worse?" Major Winchester sighed. "You're very quick, Florry dear," he said. "Yes. There wasn't anything exactly _new_, but worse--yes, it was all worse. That was partly why I went out with Paddy. I wanted to battle off my--misery." He gave a short laugh. "No, that is a womanish word; my disappointment, let us say. And that was how I came to pick up the Wentworths, you see. I had to call at the station." "But what is the disappointment--specially, I mean," Florence asked.