Georgie came into the house, with a more composed look than her face had worn for several days. She laid her garden hat upon the hall table and walked straight into the parlor to her dear Lisbeth. She had a very shrewd idea that her dear Lisbeth knew nothing of their guest’s intended departure, and she wanted to be the first to break the news to her. It would not matter if any little secrets were betrayed to herself. So she went to the window, and laid her hand on Lisbeth’s shoulder. “Did Hector tell you that he was going?” she asked, as if his having done so would have been the most natural thing in the world. “That he was going?” repeated Lisbeth. Georgie gazed considerately out into the garden. “Yes. Back to London, you know--to-morrow. I suppose he thinks he has been idle long enough.” Lisbeth shrugged her shoulders. “Rather sudden, isn’t it?” she commented. “I think you have been the first to hear the news.” “Gentlemen always do things suddenly,” remarked Georgie, astutely. She had no need to have been so discreet. Lisbeth had been very cool under the information. An indifferent observer might have easily concluded that she cared very little about it; that her interest in Hector Anstruthers’ going and coming was an extremely well-controlled feeling. When he came into the room himself, a few minutes later, she was quite composed enough to touch upon the subject with polite regrets. “Aunt Clarissa will positively mourn,” she ended, with one of her incomprehensible smiles. “She has been almost radiant during your visit.” And there her share in the matter seemed to terminate. She said nothing when the three old ladies, hearing the news, poured forth affectionate plaints, from the first course at dinner until the last. She listened composedly, without remark, though once or twice she looked at Georgie with rather an interested air. It was her turn to feel curious now, and she was curious enough. Georgie blushed when she was looked at scrutinizingly, but her manner was decidedly not that of a girl who had just accepted a lover. “And,” said Lisbeth, examining her coolly, “she would not refuse him. She must be fond of him; and if she is fond of him, she is too sweet-natured and straightforward to coquet with him. And yet--well, it is decidedly puzzling.”