"Yes, I do understand!" she exclaimed, in a voice that she hardly recognised as her own. "And I think everything you've said is horrible! If I thought Roger looked at things like that, I'd break our engagement to-morrow! But he doesn't--I know he doesn't. It's only you who think such hateful things. And--and I won't stay here! I--I _can't_!" "It's foolish to talk of breaking off your engagement," returned Lady Gertrude composedly. "Roger is not a man to be picked up and put down at any woman's whim--as you would find out if you tried to do it." Inwardly Nan felt bitterly conscious that this was true. She didn't believe for a moment that Roger would release her, however much she might implore him to. And unless he himself released her, her pledge to him must stand. "As to going away"--Lady Gertrude was speaking again. "Where would you go?" "To the flat, of course." "Do you mean to the flat you used to share with Mrs. Fenton?"--on a glacial note of incredulity. "Yes." "Who is living there?" Nan looked puzzled. What did it matter to Lady Gertrude who lived there? "No one, just now. The Fentons are going to stay there, when they come back, while they look for a house." "But they are not there now?" persisted Lady Gertrude. Nan shook her head, wondering what was the drift of so much questioning. She was soon to know. "Then, my dear child," said Lady Gertrude decidedly, "of course it would be quite impossible for you to go there." "Why impossible?" Lady Gertrude's brows lifted, superciliously. "I should have thought it was obvious," she replied curtly. "Hasn't it occurred to you that it would be hardly the thing for a young unmarried girl to be staying alone in a flat in London?" "No, it hasn't," returned Nan bluntly. "Penelope and I have each stayed there alone--heaps of times--when the other was away." "Very possibly." There was an edge to Lady Gertrude's voice which it was impossible to misinterpret. "Professional musicians are very lax--I suppose _you_ would call it Bohemian--in their ideas. That I can quite believe. But you have someone else to consider now. Roger would hardly wish his future wife to be stopping alone at a flat in London." Nan was silent. Ridiculous as it seemed, she had to admit that Lady Gertrude was speaking no more than the bare truth concerning Roger's point of view. She felt perfectly sure that he would object--very strenuously! Lady Gertrude rose. "I think there is no more to be said. You can put any idea of rushing off to London out of your head. Even if Roger were agreeable, I should not allow it while you are in my charge. Neither is it exactly complimentary to us that you should even suggest such a thing." With this parting comment she quitted the room, leaving Nan staring stonily out of the window.