He looked at her curiously--had she made any mistakes? Not many, he thought, her regard was so serene, and her clever, strong face showed no vacillation. He suddenly faced the fact that he was falling in love with her, not as he had tried to do with Läo--not even as he had once succeeded in doing with Alice Southerwood, long ago. There was a quality in his present feeling which almost frightened him, it was so lawless. She felt his eyes searching hers burningly, and rose from the sofa. "Now I am going to have my tea--so good-bye for to-day. I have really enjoyed the pictures." "May not I come and have tea with you? I am all alone." "Certainly not--Martha would be scandalised. It does seem so extraordinary that I should have to tell you such things--it shows either great disrespect to me, or else--" "What?" eagerly. He had risen, too, and was following her as she walked down the long room. "--That you cannot help yourself." "Yes--that is it. You have bewitched me in some way--I cannot help myself." "Do you want all I have taken down typewritten? I can do it after tea, if so?" "And you will sit up there all by yourself from now until you go to bed?" "Of course." "You must feel awfully solitary." "Not in the least. I have books which are the most agreeable companions. They have no independent moods--you can be sure of them, and pick up those which suit yourself. Good-night." And she turned at the bend of the great staircase from which the gallery opened, and rapidly walked on to the entrance to her passage. He looked after her with a rapt face, and then he went discontentedly down into the library, and waited for his aunt's return. He was extremely disturbed; it was horribly tantalizing to feel that this girl whom he was so passionately drawn to, was there in the house with him, and that he might not talk with her further, or be in her presence. He walked up and down the room--and those who knew the casual Gerard Strobridge, cultivated, polished and self-contained, would have been greatly surprised could they have seen his agitated pacings. Lady Garribardine had a quizzical eye when she finally came in--how had the afternoon progressed? Her opinion of the mental balance of her secretary was exceedingly high. She felt convinced that she would know exactly how to tackle her nephew, and if Gerard desired to amuse himself he would certainly do so whether she smiled upon the affair or not! It did strike her that he was rather a dangerous creature to be left a free hand with any young woman--and that after to-day she would see that Katherine ran no more risks from too much of his company. The pupils of his eyes were rather dilated, she noticed; otherwise he seemed his usual self at tea--and when Colonel Hawthorne left them alone, she got him to read to her, and did not mention her secretary at all.