"She knows well enough who's here, the huzzy!" growled Frank under his breath. "It's merely a try-on--that's what it is. They all do it. What simpletons they must take us men for, to think we can't see through their little games. But I suppose there are some born fools who can't." They had been standing at the wicket of the little garden which divided the house from the road, the front door being wide open all this time. Miss Brancker now hurried up the pathway into the Cottage. Hermia was in none of the lower rooms. She called her by name, and then the girl appeared at the head of the stairs, her hair unbound and flowing over her shoulders. "Frank is at the gate. He has brought a rose which he wishes to give you. Won't you come down?" "Not to-night, aunt, please. Really and truly I've a wretched headache. Besides, my hair is down, and----" "Bother!" exclaimed Miss Charlotte. "It wouldn't take you a second to tie a bit of ribbon round it." "You must really excuse me, aunt, and so must Frank. He can send me the rose through you, if he wishes me to have it." "That won't be half so nice as giving you it himself." But Hermia had disappeared. Miss Charlotte went back, rubbing her nose. "I suppose there's been a tiff between them," she said to herself. "Well, well! At lover's perjuries they say Jove laughs, and no doubt he does the same at their quarrels." Frank, with his hands deep in his pockets, was whistling in a minor key when she reached the gate. He laughed a laugh which was by no means as pleasant as usual, at Aunt Charlotte's lame excuse. "Well, here is the rose, at any rate," he said. "Let us hope she won't disdain it as she has disdained the giver." As he spoke he kissed the flower, and handed it to Miss Brancker. "Pray, don't forget to tell her that my love goes with it," he added, with another laugh. "And now, goodnight; my mother will think I'm lost." Then they shook hands and parted. "I often wonder whether the young baggage is aware of the twelve hundred pounds standing to her credit in the books of the Dulminster Bank," he said to himself as he went along. "It would be strange if she isn't. And yet sometimes I'm inclined to think she knows nothing about it." It was far from being his intention to go straight home. He turned into the "Crown and Cushion" as a matter of course. There was time for one last game of billiards before the house closed for the night. Miss Brancker did not fail to give Hermia both the rose and the message. The girl smiled faintly at the latter. The flower she put in water, but neither then nor afterwards did she touch it with her lips, as Aunt Charlotte told her Frank had done before sending it.