"I rather fancy," interposed Gertie, breaking the pause, "that I'm the best one to explain." She was standing beside old Mrs. Douglass, and as she spoke she gripped at the back of the wicker chair. "I don't like this mystery where I am concerned. Lady Douglass came to the door of the billiard-room whilst Mr. Langham and me--Mr. Langham and I were there. The door was locked. She had it burst open." Henry held out his hand appealingly. "That can't be all," he urged. "It's all that matters." "Where is Jim?" he demanded of Lady Douglass. "I am not my brother's keeper, but I believe he has gone down into the village." "There's something more I've got to say," Gertie went on. Her voice trembled; she made an effort to control it. "It's kind of you to ask me down here, but I wish you had invited Clarence alone. He knows how to behave in company like this; I don't. I'm not in it. It was foolish of me to come. It's like anybody trying to go Nap without a single picture card in their hand. And I want to tell you something more--I'm engaged! Engaged to a youngish man in my own station of life." "No, no!" he cried. "My dear," said old Mrs. Douglass, looking up concernedly, "surely you're not in earnest!" "I think," remarked Lady Douglass impartially, "that she is acting with great wisdom." "I was wishing to-day," the girl went on, raising her voice, "that I hadn't got myself engaged. It happened because of a misunderstanding, and I did it on the impulse of the moment; all the same, it can't be helped. And I was pretty jolly before I met Henry, and--I don't know--I may be pretty jolly again. If I go right out of his life now--why, I shall only think, I shall only remember--" Old Mrs. Douglass turned in her chair and patted the girl's hand. "I shall only remember how happy I was all the time after I was lucky enough to meet him. It's over and done with now, and I'm going back home, where I can be trusted. I must be trusted. Here, you don't quite believe me." She bent down to old Mrs. Douglass. "Not even you. I'm a foreigner at this place; a foreigner, trying to learn your habits and customs, and trying to forget my own. Perhaps, one day, you'll see that although I wasn't very refined, and not too well brought up," she raised her face, and her chin went out, "all the same, I did know how to keep myself straight." Young Mills came across the croquet lawn. "Want you for a moment, Clarence," she said. Henry Douglass, descending the staircase slowly and thoughtfully at eight o'clock, asked Rutley whether Miss Higham was in the drawing-room. Rutley answered that the young lady and Mr. Mills had gone. Walked to Cholsey to catch the evening train to town. One of the under-gardeners carried their luggage. "Quite thought you knew, sir," mentioned Rutley. CHAPTER VIII.