"Oh, well, it's not worth arguing about, any way," said the Jewess, twirling her bathing dress round very rapidly. "Don't do that!" cried Leonetta sharply. "Can't you see that you're simply drenching poor Peachy?" Mrs. Delarayne smiled imperceptibly at this remark, and all the bathers ran off to prepare for lunch. "I think," said the widow to her elder daughter, "that it would have been only considerate if Denis had offered to stay behind to keep you company this morning." Cleopatra, bundling up her work with lightning speed, rose. Her ears were hot and red, and she could not let her mother see her face. "Do you,--oh, well, I don't," she said a little tetchily, and made rapidly towards the house. Mrs. Delarayne stared sadly after her. Had she said anything offensive?--Children were difficult, very difficult, she thought; and she longed for the freedom and the society of her London home. "I think I made Denis rather savage this morning," Leonetta was explaining to Vanessa, meanwhile, as the two were arranging their hair in the bedroom they shared. Vanessa, stopping her operations for a moment, turned and regarded her friend with some interest. "When and where?" she demanded. "Well, you know that awfully good-looking boy who was sitting on the bench when we bathed yesterday----" Vanessa nodded in her business-like way. "Well, didn't you notice that he bathed at the same time as we did to-day?" "Oh, I thought I saw him," replied Vanessa. "And he kept standing in the water," Leonetta continued, "with his arms folded, staring at me. He looked most awfully wicked,--it was lovely!" she cried laughing. "But where does Denis come in?" enquired the Jewess, who was not too prone to jump to hasty conclusions concerning other people's triumphs. "Well, don't you see,--Denis saw him, and saw that I sometimes stared back at him." "Oh, is that all?" Vanessa exclaimed, with a somewhat exaggerated note of disappointment in her voice. "But did he say anything then?" "Yes, after the bathe," Leonetta rejoined, dropping her voice to a whisper, "he asked me whether I knew that strange young man." "Well?" Vanessa demanded, still retaining the note of disappointed expectancy in her voice. "That's all," Leonetta replied, conscious that Vanessa had ruined the effect of her little narrative. For some moments Vanessa silently continued her toilet; then when she was quite ready to go downstairs, she sat down and waited for her friend. "Are you fond of Denis?" she enquired at last. "He's not bad," replied Leonetta carelessly. "What do you think he thinks of me?" Vanessa's keen Jewish features became inscrutable in a moment, and her eyes turned as it were indifferently to the window. A week ago she might have replied that Denis was obviously "smitten"; but four days of almost total neglect and really formidable rivalry are hard to forgive, even when one flatters oneself that one is "above" such treatment.