"But, my dear girl, think--of what you are saying! You don't mean it; you can't mean it. Your father has relented, and will welcome you back, if only you will consent to return." "I have no wish to be regarded as the prodigal daughter," was her proud response. "Not for Walter Murie's sake?" asked the crafty man. "I have seen him. I was at the club with him last night, and we had a chat about you. He loves you very dearly. Ah! you do not know how he is suffering." She was silent, and he recognised in an instant that his words had touched the sympathetic chord in her heart. "He is not suffering any greater grief than I am," she said in a low, mechanical voice, her brow heavily clouded. "Of course I can quite understand that," he remarked sympathetically. "Walter is a good fellow, and--well, it is indeed sad that matters should be as they are. He is entirely devoted to you, Gabrielle." "Not more so than I am to him," declared the girl quite frankly. "Then why did you write breaking off your engagement?" "He told you that?" she exclaimed in surprise. The truth was that Murie had told Flockart nothing. He had not even seen him. It was only a wild guess on Flockart's part. "Tell me," she urged anxiously, "what did he say concerning myself?" Flockart hesitated. His mind was instantly active in the concoction of a story. "Oh, well--he expressed the most profound regret for all that had occurred at Glencardine, and is, of course, utterly puzzled. It appears that just before Christmas he went home to Connachan and visited your father several times. From him, I suppose, he heard how you had been discovered." "You told him nothing?" "I told him nothing," declared Flockart--which was a fact. "Did he express a wish to see me?" she inquired. "Of course he did. Is he not over head and ears in love with you? He believes you have treated him cruelly." "I--I know I have, Mr. Flockart," she admitted. "But I acted as any girl of honour would have done. I was compelled to take upon myself a great disgrace, and on doing so I released him from his promise to me." "Most honourable!" the man declared with a pretence of admiration, yet underlying it all was a craftiness that surely was unsurpassed. That visit of his to Northamptonshire was made with some ulterior motive, yet what it was the girl was unable to discover. She would surely have been cleverer than most people had she been able to discern the hidden, sinister motives of James Flockart. The truth was that he had not seen Murie, and the story of his anxiety he had only concocted on the spur of the moment. "Walter asked me to give you a message," he went on. "He asked me to urge you to return to Glencardine, and to withdraw that letter you wrote him before your departure." "To return to Glencardine!" she repeated, staring into his face. "Walter wishes me to do that! Why?" "Because he loves you. Because he will intercede with your father on your behalf."