"So that's the way _you_ look at things?" He smiled down at her, his eyes very luminous and tender. "Thank you, Ann, for the way you look at things--the plucky, generous, splendid way." And when he had gone Ann was conscious of a warm glow round about her heart--that gladdening glow of comfort and thanksgiving which the spontaneous, ardent loyalty of real friends can bring even to the heaviest heart. CHAPTER XXVI ENLIGHTENMENT "I've turned up again like a bad penny, you see." Brett, ushered into the living-room at the Cottage by a very depressed-looking Maria, made the announcement with his usual debonair assurance. "So I see," replied Ann, shaking hands without enthusiasm. "How are you?" He looked at her critically--at her face, paler than its wont, her shadowed eyes, the slight lines of her figure--grown slighter even during the brief span of a week. "_I'm_ all right," he returned pointedly. "But I can't say as much for you. What have you been doing in my absence? Pining?"--quizzically. "Not exactly," she answered dryly. "I've had--oh, various worries. Nothing to do with you, though." "I'm not so sure," replied Brett, with a flash of sardonic humour, the significance of which was lost on Ann. "Then I'm afraid you'll have to take my word for it," she responded indifferently. "Are you worrying about this slur on your fair name?" he demanded next, as airily as though he were inquiring if she was worrying about the trimming of a new hat. "My revered aunt has told me all the news, you see." Ann winced. "Brett, how can you speak like that?" Her voice trembled. "It--it isn't anything to laugh at. It's horrible!" He regarded her in silence. Then: "No. It isn't anything to laugh at," he said suddenly. "It's my chance." He took a quick step towards her and she retreated involuntarily. "Your chance?" she replied. "What do you mean?" "My chance to prove that I'm a better lover than Coventry. I understand he's so shocked that he's bolted out of England"--sneeringly. "Well, I'm not. I've come back to ask you to marry me." Ann quivered at his mention of Eliot's name, but with an effort she forced herself to answer him composedly. "I can only give you the same answer as before--no, Brett." "Do explain why," he returned irrepressibly. "I don't care tuppence what people say. In fact, if they dared to say anything after we were married I should jolly well break their heads for them. So that's that. But surely I'm as good a fellow as Coventry--who's apparently cried off at the first sign of storm. I suppose that's what's happened, isn't it?" She turned and faced him, a spark of anger in her eyes. "Whatever it is that has happened between Eliot and me, it has nothing to do with you," she said haughtily. His eyes flickered over her face. "But I can guess!" he replied imperturbably. "You?--Guess? How--" She broke off, shaken, as so often before, by his air of complete assurance. He looked at her with quizzical eyes.