And it was woefully hard to come to any decision. For, as you know by this, it was the colonel's besetting infirmity to shrink from making changes; instinctively he balked--under shelter of whatever grandiloquent excuse--against commission of any action which would alter his relations with accustomed circumstances or persons. To guide events was never his forte, as he forlornly knew; and here he was condemned perforce to play that uncongenial rôle, with slender chances of reward. Yet always Anne's face floated in the darkness. Always Anne's voice whispered through the lisping of the beeches, through the murmur of the water.... He sat thus for a long while. II Musgrave was, not unnaturally, late for supper. It is not to be supposed that at this meal the colonel faltered in his duties as a host, for, to the contrary, he narrated several anecdotes in his neatest style. It was with him a point of honor always to be in company the social triumph of his generation. He observed with idle interest that Charteris and Patricia avoided each other in a rather marked manner. Both seemed a trifle more serious than they were wont to be. After supper, Tom Gelwix brought forth a mandolin, and most of the house-party sang songs, sentimental and otherwise, upon the front porch of Matocton. Anne had disappeared somewhere. Musgrave subsequently discovered her in one of the drawing-rooms, puzzling over a number of papers which her maid had evidently just brought to her. Mrs. Charteris looked up with a puckered brow. "Rudolph," said she, "haven't you an account at the Occidental Bank?" "Hardly an account, dear lady,--merely a deposit large enough to entitle me to receive monthly notices that I have overdrawn it." "Why, then, of course, you have a cheque-book. Horrible things, aren't they?--such a nuisance remembering to fill out those little stubs. Of course, I forgot to bring mine with me--I always do; and equally, of course, a vexatious debt turns up and finds me without an Occidental Bank cheque to my name." Musgrave was amused. "That," said he, "is easily remedied. I will get you one; though even if--Ah, well, what is the good of trying to teach you adorable women anything about business! You shall have your indispensable blank form in three minutes." He returned in rather less than that time, with the cheque. Anne was alone now. She was gowned in some dull, soft, yellow stuff, and sat by a small, marble-topped table, twiddling a fountain-pen.