"Changed his mind, has he? Good!" "Yes; I persuaded him," Peg said laconically. She was fully aware that Faith was close beside her, and it gave her a fierce sort of joy to know that the girl's eyes were turned upon her with the faintest shadow of suspicion in them. When Forrester appeared Peg called to him quickly. "Come and sit next to me, Mr. Forrester. The back seat's the most comfortable." Faith's lips moved as if she would have spoken, but she closed them again and took her place beside Digby without comment. Not one of the four could have said that the day was enjoyable. There was an intangible something in the air which they all could feel but none of them explain. They drove into the heart of the country and lunched at a wayside inn. Faith was very quiet, and she kept glancing at Peg and her husband with scared eyes. Afterwards, when they went out into the woods in their wonderful autumn tints, she found herself with Digby, and, looking quickly round, saw that her husband and Peg were some little distance behind, sauntering along leisurely and apparently the best of friends. She could hear Forrester's deep voice and Peg's rather loud laugh, and a queer sense of unwantedness crept into her heart. "A penny for your thoughts!" Digby said, touching her arm, and she started and smiled and said they were not worth anything. "It would be a penny badly invested," she said with an effort at lightness. Digby looked down at her and swiftly away again. He knew quite well that it was for this girl that he lingered so long in his friend's house, and there was bitterest envy in his heart. Forrester had always been lucky. The best of this world's goods had always gone his way. He had envied him for his business capabilities and gift of making money, but he envied him more now because he had this girl for his wife. "Aren't the woods lovely?" Faith asked, with an effort to break the silence. "I've never seen anything quite so lovely." "You must get Forrester to take you abroad," Digby said, stifling a sigh. "Have you ever been out of England?" "No." "Always lived in London?" "Yes." "You haven't really begun to live yet, then," he told her. Their eyes met, and there was a queer, wistful look in the man's that brought the colour rushing to Faith's cheeks, though she hardly knew why. She stopped dead and looked back through the leafy wood. "Shall we wait for the others?" she asked nervously. It was some seconds before Peg and Forrester joined them. "Mrs. Forrester tells me that she has never been out of England," Digby said. "And I tell her that if that is so she has not yet begun to live! London's all right--finest place in the world, bar none, but to appreciate it properly you ought to go away from it for months." "I hate London," Faith said impulsively. He opened his eyes in amazement. "Really! What part have you lived in?" Faith coloured and did not answer, but Peg broke in in her usual blunt way: