In the yard he saw Ellice. “Gipsy girl,” he said, “come with me. Let’s go out—anywhere in the car for a ride—it doesn’t matter where. Come with me!” Her face flushed, then paled. “No thank you!” she said coldly. “I am busy doing something for Joan.” Johnny sighed with disappointment, there was pain in his eyes too. In the old days she would not have refused; she would have come gladly. “My little Gipsy girl is against me too!” He walked away slowly and dejectedly, and the girl watched him. She lifted her hands and pressed them hard against her breast, and then—then Johnny heard the light fall of swift-moving feet. He felt a clutch on his arm, and turned. He saw a flushed face, bright eyes were looking into his. “If—if you want me to, I’ll come,” she said. “I’ll come with you—anywhere!” He did not answer. His hands had dropped on to her shoulders; he stood there holding her and looking into her face, glowing with a beauty that he had never seen in it before, and in his eyes was still that puzzled look, the look of a man who does not quite understand. “Why, Gipsy girl!” he said slowly, “you are a woman—you have grown up all suddenly.” “Yes, I am—I am a woman!” She laughed, but the laughter ended in a sob. She bent her head, and Johnny, strangely puzzled, slipped his arm about her and drew her a little closer to him. He had thought her a child; but she was a woman, and he had seen in her eyes that which set his dull wits wondering. CHAPTER XXXVI “HE HAS COME BACK” It was exactly a week since his departure that Hugh returned to Starden, and found Mrs. Bonner a little surprised, but by no means unready. “You said as you’d send me a message, sir,” she said. “I did, and I haven’t done it—I’ll take the consequences.” But there were no consequences to take. She prepared him an ample meal at the shortest notice, and was willing enough to stop and talk to him while he ate it. “Anything new, anything fresh?” “Nothing!” “No strangers about Starden?” “No!” Had Slotman been? That was what Hugh wanted to know. Presently he asked the question direct. “You don’t happen to have seen that man I described to you some time back, a stout man with a lean face, overdressed, thick red lips, small eyes?” “Law bless us! yes. I see him two days ago, drove past he did in a car—a shabby-looking car it was, but he didn’t stop. He just stared at the cottage as he drove past, and I got an idea he smiled, only I ain’t sure. I am sure of one thing, however; he did stare terribul hard at this cottage!” “You are sure it is the man?” Mrs. Bonner described Mr. Slotman’s appearance vividly, and Mr. Slotman, had he been there, might not have been pleased to hear of the impression he had made on the good woman. “A man,” she concluded, “as I wouldn’t trust, not a hinch!” “It’s the man!” Hugh thought. “And he’s come back, as I thought he would. Funny he should look at the cottage! Good Lord! I wonder if he has spies about here?”