"And you waited upon him?" "Yes!" The girl lifted her head. "Mr. Macheson always behaved like a gentleman to me," she said. Wilhelmina regarded her contemptuously. "Your ideas of what constitutes gentlemanly behaviour are probably primitive," she said. "I do not think that I need trouble you for any direct answer. Still, it would be better for you to give it." The girl was again silent. There was a knock at the door. The footman ushered in Stephen Hurd. He entered confident and smiling. He was wearing a new grey tweed suit, and he was pleased with himself and the summons which had brought him to London. But the sight of the girl took his breath away. She, too, was utterly taken by surprise, and forgot herself. "Stephen!" she exclaimed, taking a quick step towards him. "You! You here!" he answered. It was quite enough! But what puzzled Letty was that Wilhelmina did not seem in the least angry. There was a strange look on her face as she looked from one to the other. Something had sprung into her eyes which seemed to transform her. Her voice, too, had lost all its hardness. "How do you do, Mr. Hurd?" she said. "I hope you have come to explain how you dared let this child lose her train last night." "I--really I--it was quite a mistake," he faltered, darting an angry glance at Letty. "You had supper with her," Wilhelmina said, "and you knew what time the train went." "She met some other friends," Stephen answered. "She left me." Wilhelmina smiled. She had found out all that she wanted to know. "Well," she said, "I won't inquire too closely into it this time, only I hope that nothing of the sort will occur again. You had better have lunch with Mrs. Brown in the housekeeper's room, Letty, and I'll send you over to St. Pancras for the four o'clock train. I'll give you a letter to your mother this time, but mind, no more foolishness of this sort." The girl tried to stammer out her thanks, but she was almost incoherent. Wilhelmina dismissed her with a smile. Her manner was distinctly colder when she turned to Hurd. "Mr. Hurd," she said, "I hope you will understand me when I say that I do not care to have my agent, or any one connected with the estate, play the Don Juan amongst my tenants' daughters." He flushed up to the eyes. "It was idiotic of me," he admitted frankly. "I simply meant to give the child a good time." "She is quite pretty in her way," Wilhelmina said, "and her parents, I believe, are most respectable people. You were perhaps thinking of settling down?" He looked at her in amazement. "What, with Letty Foulton!" he exclaimed. "Why not?" she asked. He drew a breath through his teeth. He could scarcely trust himself to speak for anger. "You--are not serious?" he permitted himself to ask. "Why not?" she demanded. Hurd struggled to express himself with dignity. "I should not consider such a marriage a suitable one, even if I were thinking of marrying at all," he said. She raised her eyebrows.