"Will you come in the garden with me after dinner?" asked Harry, as Cecily and he went upstairs. "Of course--when they've gone." "No, directly. I want to say a word to you." "We must escape then!" she laughed. "Oh, well, they'll expect that, I suppose." Her delight in her love bubbled over in her laugh. They came to the door of her room, and she stopped. "Here?" asked Harry. "Yes, it was my mother's room. You reign now in my mother's stead." His voice had a ring of triumph in it. He kissed her hand. "Dinner as soon as you're ready," said he. She laughed again and blushed as she opened the door and stood holding the handle. "Won't you come in--just for a minute, Harry? I--I haven't changed this room at all." "All is yours to change or to keep unchanged," said he. "Oh, I've no reason for changing anything now. Everything's to be put back in the Long Gallery!" She paused, and then said again, "Won't you come in for just a minute, Harry?" "I must go back to our friends downstairs," he answered. The pretext was threadbare. What did the guests matter? They would do well enough. It had cost her something to ask--a little effort--since the request still seemed so strange, since its pleasure had a fear in it. And now she was refused. "I ask you," she said, with a sudden haughtiness. He stood looking at her a moment. There was a brisk step along the corridor. "Oh, I beg your Ladyship's pardon. I didn't know your Ladyship had come upstairs." It was Cecily's maid. "In about twenty minutes," said Harry with a nod. Slowly Cecily followed the maid inside. After he had washed his hands Harry rejoined his friends. They were still sitting in the hall with an air of expectancy. "You've told her?" cried Mina. "Oh, yes, Mr Neeld has told me everything." "Well, I've mentioned the bare fact----" Neeld began. "Yes, yes, that's the only thing that matters. You've told her, Harry?" The last two days made him "Harry" and her "Mina." "No, I had a chance and I--funked it," said Harry, slow in speech and slow in smile. "She asked me into her room. Well, I wouldn't go." He laughed as he spoke, laughed rather scornfully. "It's rather absurd. I shall be all right after dinner," he added, laughing still. "Or would you like to do the job for me, Mina?" The Imp shook her head with immense determination. "I'll throw myself into the Blent if you like," she said. "What about you, Mr Neeld?" "My dear friend, oh, my dear friend!" Undisguised panic took possession of Mr Neeld. He tried to cover it by saying sternly, "This--er--preposterous position is entirely your own fault, you know. You have acted----" "Yes, I know," nodded Harry, not impatiently but with a sombre assent. He roused himself the next moment, saying, "Well, somebody's got to bell the cat, you know." "Really it's not my business," protested Neeld and Mina in one breath, both laughing nervously. "You like the fun, but you don't want any of the work," remarked Harry.