"Are you just off?" she asked him frigidly. "Will you have anything before you go?" Hunt-Goring laughed--a soft, unpleasant laugh. "Many thanks!" he said. "I was just asking myself that question. Generous of you to suggest it though. Perhaps you--like myself--are feeling bored." He lowered himself on to the grassy bank beside her chair, smiling up at her with easy insolence. Olga did not look at him. Handsome though he undoubtedly was, he was the one man of her acquaintance whose eyes she shrank from meeting. His very proximity sent a shiver of disgust through her. She made a covert movement to edge her chair away. "Where is Miss Campion?" she said. He laughed again, that hateful confidential laugh of his. "She has gone indoors to rest. The heat made her sleepy. I suggested the hammock, but she wouldn't run the risk of being caught napping. I see that there is small danger of that with you." Olga stiffened. She was putting together her work with evident determination. "I will see you off," she said. "You seem in a mighty hurry to get rid of me," he said, without moving. She laid her mending upon the grass and rose. "I am busy--as you see," she returned. He looked at her for a moment, then very deliberately followed her example. He stood looking down at her from his great height, a speculative smile on his face. "You've soon had enough of me, what?" he suggested. Olga's pale eyes gleamed for an instant like steel suddenly bared to the sun. She said nothing whatever, merely stood before him very stiff and straight, plainly waiting for him to go. "It's a pity to outstay one's welcome," he said. "I wouldn't do that for the world. But what about that kiss you offered me just now?" "I?" said Olga, quivering disdain in the word. "You, my little spitfire!" he said genially. "And it won't be the first time, what? Come now! You're always running away, but you should reflect that you're bound to be caught sooner or later. You didn't think I was going to let you off, did you?" She stood before him speechless, with clenched hands. He drew a little nearer. "You pay your debts, don't you? And what more suitable opportunity than the present? You are so elusive nowadays. Why, I haven't seen you except from afar since last Christmas. You were always such a nice, sociable little girl till then." "Sociable!" whispered Olga. "Well, you were!" He laughed again in his easy fashion. "Don't you remember what fun we had at the Rectory on Christmas Eve, and how you came to tea with me on the sly a few days after, and how we kissed under the mistletoe, and how you promised--" "I promised nothing!" burst out Olga, with flashing eyes. "Oh, pardon me! You promised to kiss me again some day. Have you forgotten? I hardly think your memory is as short as that." He drew nearer still, and slipped a cajoling arm about her. "Why are we in such a towering rage, I wonder? Surely you don't want to repudiate your liabilities! You promised, you know."