All this erratic behaviour caused Philia not a little concern and alarm. As a general rule Evarne was so very placid and level-headed, that this disregard of all precedent, this wandering about in the dark and sleeping in the daylight, this neglect of work, meals at extraordinary hours, and all the rest of the disorganising of respectable routine, was not an occurrence to be treated lightly. Still, in Philia's experience of human nature, directly a girl must needs go and fall in love, troubles and upsets and excitements followed as an inevitable corollary, while calm quiet contentment took unto itself wings. Thus she did not consider the root-cause of the present state of affairs to be enshrouded in unsolvable mystery. Although she was rather hurt at not being made a confidante, she evinced no curiosity, being fairly satisfied that clouds of such a nature almost always pass away in due course. But when half an hour later she answered a knock at the door and discovered Geoff, she greeted him with anything but an amiable countenance. "How is she now?" he inquired. "Guess she's better agin, for she's gorn out to git a breath o' fresh air. Will yer please to step in and wait. I dare say she would like to see yer when she comes back." Needing no second invitation, Geoff followed Mrs. Harbert into the house. The pretty little sitting-room was full of Evarne's personality. Here were the flowers he had brought her; here too were her books, her drawing-board, her writing-case; there was the embroidered footstool on which she had sat during his previous visit. Everything sang to him of Evarne. There were the really charming pictures on the walls, signed with her initials, that she had amazed him by showing as her own handiwork. There was her little work-box, and across it lay the long strip of embroidery on which he had seen her diligently creating silken blossoms. Moved by a sudden longing to hold in his hand something that she had touched, Geoff picked up this and surveyed it with the minute scrutiny of an apparent connoisseur in art needlework. Philia was speaking to him somewhat reproachfully. She imagined that now, having the culprit under her thumb, she could, with all due regard for politeness, give him a "piece of her mind."