He did not feel quite satisfied when he parted from her that she would keep the engagement; but on the following afternoon when he motored up to the house, she came out dressed for the drive and met him at the gate. He was aware, as he helped her into the car, of several curious faces watching them from the doorway and behind the dingy curtains of the front room windows. The "Exotics" were frankly interested in the proceeding, and watched the car and its occupants with eager, envious eyes until they were out of sight. "I am glad you are giving up this life," Dare remarked to his silent companion, as they spun along in the sunshine with the light wind in their faces. "It's all very well in its way, I don't doubt; but it's just a trifle sordid, isn't it?" "What is one to do?" she asked. "One must live. There isn't a wide choice for women, as you know." "That's true," he acknowledged, and was silent for a moment. "Why did you give up teaching?" he asked abruptly. She reddened and appeared distinctly annoyed. "That isn't a vastly amusing, nor particularly lucrative form of earning a livelihood," she returned with sarcasm. "How do you know I was teaching?" "I have recently been staying with the Carruthers," he replied. "Mrs Carruthers spoke of you. I told her I had seen you in Johannesburg." Blanche looked deliberately away. "Mrs Carruthers! Was she... She was my very kind friend formerly," she remarked in an embarrassed, hesitating way. "I should be sorry if she thought less kindly of me now." "Why should she?" he asked. She brought her face round again, and her eyes, steady and inquiring, met his fully. "I don't think you are being quite sincere with me," she said. Dare was unprepared for this direct attack. He felt at a decided disadvantage. She was much more shrewd than he had expected. "Now, I wonder why you should think that?" he asked. "Oh!" she exclaimed sharply. "Do you suppose I don't know that while you were in Wynberg you heard me discussed? I've got relations there; they write to me. The things people say!" So already the gossip that was being circulated had reached her on her journeying. Dare scrutinised her closely, uncertain whether to treat her frankly as she seemed to wish, or to attempt to acquire the information he needed by less straightforward methods. In the end he resolved to be frank. Despite all that he had heard relative to her flight and her previous relations with Arnott, he had a strong persuasion that the stories concerning her were mostly lies. He discredited entirely the tale of her elopement. A girl does not run away with a man and leave him immediately to follow the kind of life she was at present leading. The fact that Arnott had been in Johannesburg at the same time that she was there called for some other explanation, he decided. "Don't you think that perhaps you have your own indiscretion to blame for the stories that are being floated?" he asked.