"I shouldn't think anyone ever accused Dene Strange of lack of courage," said Mrs. Fielding. "I read all he writes. He is so intensely clever." "Some people think he's a woman," said Juliet. "Oh, I don't believe that. Neither do you. No woman ever had a brain like that. It's quite Napoleonic. I'd give a good deal to meet him." "And be horribly disappointed," said Juliet. "Why do you say that?" "Because lions always are disappointing when they're hunted down. The ones that roar are quite insufferable, and the ones that don't are just banal." Mrs. Fielding looked at her with interest for the first time. "You've seen a good deal of life," she remarked. "Oh, no!" said Juliet lightly. "But enough to realize that the torch of genius burns best in dark places. Perhaps Strange is right after all--from his own point of view at least. That lion-hunting business is so revolting." "You speak as one who knows," said Mrs. Fielding. Juliet smiled. "I have watched from the outside edge, as Dene Strange puts it. I expect you have heard of the Farringmores, haven't you? I am distantly related to them. I was brought up with Lady Joanna. So I know a little of what London people call life." "I saw you had been in society," said Mrs. Fielding half enviously. "Yes, I have had five seasons--nearly six. And I never want another." Juliet spoke with great emphasis. "That's why I'm here now." "I wonder you never married," said Mrs. Fielding. "Do you?" Juliet spoke dreamily. They were running swiftly up a steep and stony road leading to High Shale Point. "Lady Jo used to wonder that. But I've never yet met a man who was willing to wait, and I couldn't do a thing like that in a hurry." "You could if you were in love," said Mrs. Fielding. "Yes, perhaps you're right. In that case, I have never been enough in love to take the leap." Juliet spoke with a half smile. Her eyes were fixed upon the top of the hill. "But anyhow Lady Jo couldn't talk, for she has just jilted Ivor Yardley the K. C. and gone to Paris to buy mourning." "Good gracious!" exclaimed Mrs. Fielding. "Why, I saw the description of the wedding-dress in the paper the other day. It must have been a near thing." "It was," said Juliet soberly. "They were to have been married to-day." "And she broke it off! That must have taken some pluck!" "But she didn't stay to face the music," Juliet pointed out. "That was what I hated in her. She ought to have stayed." "Was she afraid of him then?" "Afraid? Yes, she was afraid of him--and of everybody else. I know that perfectly well, though you would never get her to admit it. She was terrified in her heart--and so she bolted." "Why didn't you go with her?" asked Mrs. Fielding. Juliet made an odd gesture of the hands that was somehow passionate. "Why should I? I have disapproved of her for a long time. Now we have finally quarrelled. She behaved so badly--so very badly. I don't want to meet her--or any of her set--again!"