"The Roman Wall; Hadrian's Wall. I believe one authority states they had a garrison of 100,000 men to keep it." Chisholm joined the group. He was a tall, rather florid-faced man with a formal manner, dressed immaculately in creaseless clothes. "The point Carroll raises is interesting," he remarked. "While I don't know how long it takes for a strain to die out, there must have been a large civil population living near the wall, and we know that the characteristics of the Teutonic peoples, who followed the Romans, still remain." Nobody else had any comment to make, and when by and by the group broke up, Evelyn was left alone for a few minutes with Mabel. "Gerald should have been sent to Canada instead of Oxford," she said. "Then he might have got as rich as Wallace Vane and Mr. Carroll." "What makes you think they're rich?" Evelyn asked with reproof in her tone. "Oh!" said Mabel, "we all knew they were rich before they came, and they were giving Lucy guineas for the suffragists an hour ago. They must have a good deal of money to waste it like that. Besides, I think Wallace wanted her to take some more, and he seemed quite vexed when he said he'd tried to give money to somebody else in Canada, who wouldn't have it. As he said--she--it must have been a woman--but I don't think he meant to mention that. It slipped out." "You had no right to listen," Evelyn retorted severely; but the information sank into her mind, and she afterwards remembered it. CHAPTER IX CHISHOLM PROVES AMENABLE. Vane spent a month at the Dene with quiet satisfaction, and when at last he left for London and Paris he gladly promised to come back for another few weeks before he sailed for Canada. He stayed some time in Paris, because Carroll insisted on it, but it was with eagerness he went north again. For one reason--and he laid some stress upon this--he longed for the moorland air and the rugged fells, though he also admitted that Evelyn's society enhanced their charm for him. At last, shortly before setting out on the journey, he took himself to task and endeavoured to determine what his feelings towards her were, but he signally failed to elucidate the point. It was only clear that he was more contented in her presence, and that, apart from her physical comeliness, she had a stimulating effect upon his mental faculties, although so far as he could remember she seldom said anything remarkable. Then he wondered how she regarded him, and to this question he could find no answer. For the most part there was a reserve he found more piquant than deterrent about her, and he was conscious that while willing to talk with him freely she was still holding him off at arm's length.