Anna continued to consider her kindly. It was evident that she did not care to say why she wished to leave Givre so suddenly, but her disturbed face and shaken voice betrayed a more pressing motive than the natural desire to spend the weeks before her marriage under her old friends’ roof. Since she had made no response to the allusion to Madame de Chantelle, Anna could but conjecture that she had had a passing disagreement with Owen; and if this were so, random interference might do more harm than good. “My dear child, if you really want to go at once I sha’n’t, of course, urge you to stay. I suppose you have spoken to Owen?” “No. Not yet...” Anna threw an astonished glance at her. “You mean to say you haven’t told him?” “I wanted to tell you first. I thought I ought to, on account of Effie.” Her look cleared as she put forth this reason. “Oh, Effie!--” Anna’s smile brushed away the scruple. “Owen has a right to ask that you should consider him before you think of his sister...Of course you shall do just as you wish,” she went on, after another thoughtful interval. “Oh, thank you,” Sophy Viner murmured and rose to her feet. Anna rose also, vaguely seeking for some word that should break down the girl’s resistance. “You’ll tell Owen at once?” she finally asked. Miss Viner, instead of replying, stood before her in manifest uncertainty, and as she did so there was a light tap on the door, and Owen Leath walked into the room. Anna’s first glance told her that his face was unclouded. He met her greeting with his happiest smile and turned to lift Sophy’s hand to his lips. The perception that he was utterly unconscious of any cause for Miss Viner’s agitation came to his step-mother with a sharp thrill of surprise. “Darrow’s looking for you,” he said to her. “He asked me to remind you that you’d promised to go for a walk with him.” Anna glanced at the clock. “I’ll go down presently.” She waited and looked again at Sophy Viner, whose troubled eyes seemed to commit their message to her. “You’d better tell Owen, my dear.” Owen’s look also turned on the girl. “Tell me what? Why, what’s happened?” Anna summoned a laugh to ease the vague tension of the moment. “Don’t look so startled! Nothing, except that Sophy proposes to desert us for a while for the Farlows.” Owen’s brow cleared. “I was afraid she’d run off before long.” He glanced at Anna. “Do please keep her here as long as you can!” Sophy intervened: “Mrs. Leath’s already given me leave to go.” “Already? To go when?” “Today,” said Sophy in a low tone, her eyes on Anna’s. “Today? Why on earth should you go today?” Owen dropped back a step or two, flushing and paling under his bewildered frown. His eyes seemed to search the girl more closely. “Something’s happened.” He too looked at his step-mother. “I suppose she must have told you what it is?”