was bidden to run away and dress. "We're preparing one or two surprises for you, my dear," he said to her, with a grim smile which carried for Isobel a hidden reference. Thus commanded in Vivien's presence, Isobel was cleverly caught between the duty of obedience and the abandonment of her ostensible position in the house. Her barricade was being outflanked; she was forced into the open. She was in fear of him, almost actual physical fear; whether more of his fondness or of his roughness she could not tell; she felt that she could hardly bear either. Since her avowal to Harry, her courage had never returned, her weapons seemed blunted, she was no more mistress of all her resources. Yet in the end she feared the fondness more, and would at all costs avoid that. She summoned the remnants of her once brilliant array of bravery. Alone with her, he wasted no time on the artifice which had secured him privacy. "What's this new fad, Isobel? You're wilfully avoiding me. One evening you turn faint; another you dodge me, and are off to bed! Though I don't think I've ever made exacting claims on your time, considering!" "I've been afraid--you'd better hear the truth--to speak to you." "I should like the truth, certainly, if I can get it. What have you been afraid to speak to me about?" "Our engagement." She made the plunge, her eyes fixed apprehensively on his face. "I--I can't go on with it, Mr. Wellgood." He had schooled himself for this answer; he made no outburst. His tone was mild; the cunning of jealousy gave him an alien smoothness. "Sit down, my dear, and tell me why." She sat facing him, his writing-table between them. "My feelings haven't--haven't developed as I hoped they would." "Oh, your feelings haven't developed?" he repeated slowly. "Towards me?" "I reserved the right to change my mind--you remember?" "And I the right to be unpleasant about it." He smiled under intent eyes. "I'll leave the house to-morrow, if you like," she cried, eager now to accept a banishment she had once dreaded. "Oh, no! I'm not going to be unpleasant. We needn't do things like that." "I--I think I should prefer it." "I'm sorry you should feel that. There's no need; you shan't be annoyed." "That's good of you. I thought you'd be very, very hard to me." "Would that be the best way to win you back? I don't know--at any rate I don't feel like following it. But really you can't go off at a moment's notice--and just now! What would Vivien think? What are we to say to her? What would everybody think? And how are Vivien and I to get through all this business of the wedding?" "I know it would be awkward, and look odd, but it might be better. Your feelings--" "Never mind my feelings; you know they're not my weak spot. Come, Isobel, you see now you've no cause to be afraid of me, don't you?"