to please me; it was merely that her desire for knowledge was :

so acute that she could not deny it. I believe that there was :

some plot in her head that if she could learn all I knew she could then confront her father with a question : Since there is no more Miss can teach me, is there any point in her remaining here?

I often thought of tales I had heard of governesses whose declining years were made happy by those whom they had taught as children. No such happy fate would be mine—at least as far as Alvean was concerned.

I had been shocked when I first heard the name of Alice mentioned, and after the daylight had passed I would consequently feel that the house was full of eerie shadows. That was pure fancy of course. It had been a bad beginning, meeting that man in the train and his talk of second sight.

I did wonder, when I was alone in my room and the house was quiet, of what Alice had died. She must have been quite a young woman. It was, I told myself, because she was so recently dead—for after all a year was not a very long time-that her presence seemed to haunt the place.

I would wake in the night to hear what I thought were voices, and they seemed to be moaning: ” Alice. Alice. Where is Alice?”

I went to my window and listened, and the whispering voices seemed to be carried on the air.

Daisy who, like her sister, was by no means a fanciful person,

explained away my fancies the very next morning when she brought my hot water.

” Did ‘ee hear the sea last night, Miss, in old Mellyn Cove? Sis ..

sis . sis . woa . woa . woa . all night long. Just like two old biddies having a good gossip down there. “

” Why, yes, I heard it.”

” Tis like that on certain nights when the sea be high and the wind in a certain direction.”

I laughed at myself. There was an explanation to everything.

I had grown to know the people of the household. Mrs. Tapperty called me in one day for a glass of her parsnip wine. She hoped I was comfortable at the house; then she told me of the trial Tapperty was to her because he couldn’t keep his eyes nor his hands from the maidens and the younger the better. She feared Kitty and Daisy took after their father. It was a pity for their mother was, according to herself, a Godfearing body who would be seen in Mellyn Church every Sunday, night and morning. Now the girls were grown up she had not only to wonder whether Joe Tapperty was after Mrs. Tully from the cottages, but what Daisy was doing in the stables with Billy Trehay or Kitty with that house boy from Mount Widden. It was a hard life for a Godfearing woman who only wanted to do right and see right done.

I went to see Mrs. Soady at the lodge gates and heard about her three sons and their children. ” Never did I see such people for putting their toes through their stockings. It’s one body’s work to keep them in stockings.”

I was very eager to learn about the house in which I lived, and the intricacies of heel-turning did not greatly excite me; therefore I did not often call on Mrs. Soady.

I tried on occasions to catch Gilly and talk to her; but although I saw her now and then, I did not succeed. I called her, but that only made her run away more swiftly. I could never hear her soft crooning voice without being deeply disturbed.

I felt that something should be done for her. I was angry with these country folk who, because she was unlike they were, believed her to be mad. I wanted to talk to Gilly if that were possible. I wanted to find out what went on behind that blank blue stare.

I knew she was interested in me, and I believed that in some way she had sensed my interest in her. But she was afraid of me. Something must have happened to frighten her at some time, because she was so unnaturally timid. If I could only discover what, if I could teach her that in me at least she had nothing to fear, I believed I could help her to become a normal child.

During those days I believe I thought more of Gilly than I did of Alvean. The latter seemed to me to be merely a naughty spoilt child; there were thousands such. I felt that the gentle creature called Gillyflower was unique.

It was impossible to talk to Mrs. Polgrey about her granddaughter, for she was such a conventional woman. In her mind a person was either mad or sane, and the degree of sanity depended on the conformity with Mrs. Polgrey’s own character. As Gilly was as different from her grandmother as anyone could be, Gilly was therefore irremediably crazy.

So although I did broach the subject with Mrs. Polgrey she was grimly uncommunicative and told me by her looks alone to remember that I was here to take charge of Miss Alvean, and that Gilly was no concern of mine.

This was the state of affairs when Connan TreMellyn returned to Mount

As soon as I set eyes on Connan TreMellyn he aroused deep feelings within me. I was aware of his presence, indeed, before I saw him.

It was afternoon when he arrived. Alvean had gone off by herself and I had sent for hot water to wash before I went for a stroll. Kitty brought it and I noticed the difference in her from the moment she entered the room. Her black eyes gleamed and her mouth seemed a little slack.

” Master be home,” she said.

I tried not to show that I was faintly disturbed; and at that moment Daisy put her head round the door. The sisters looked very much alike just then. There was about them both a certain expectancy which sickened me. I thought I understood the expression in the faces of these lusty girls. I suspected that neither of them was virgin. There was suggestion in their very gestures and I had seen them in scuffling intimacy with Billy Trehay in the stables and with the boys who came in from the village to work about the place. They changed subtly when they were in the presence of the opposite sex and I understood what that meant. Their excitement over the return of the Master, of whom I gathered everyone was in awe, led me to one conclusion, and I felt faintly disgusted, not only with them but with myself for entertaining such thoughts.

Is he that sort of man then? I was asking myself.

” He came in half an hour ago,” said Kitty.

They were studying me speculatively and once more I thought I read their thoughts. They were telling themselves that there would be little competition from me.

My disgust increased and I turned away.

I said coolly: ” Well, I’ll wash my hands and you can take the water away. I am going for a walk.”

I put on my hat and, even as I went out quickly by way of the back stairs, I sensed the change. Mr. Polgrey was busy in the gardens, and the two boys who came in from the village were working as though their lives depended on it. Tapperty was cleaning out the stables; he was so intent on his work that he did not notice me.

There was no doubt that the whole household was in awe of the Master.

As I wandered through the woods I told myself that if he did not like me I could leave at any time. I supposed I could stay with Phillida while I looked round. At least I had some relations to whom I could go. I was not entirely alone in the world.

I called on Alvean, but my voice was lost in the thickness of the trees and there was no response. Then I called: ” Gilly! Are you there, Gillyflower? Do come and talk to me if you are. I won’t hurt you.”

There was no answer.

At half past three I went back to the house and, as I was mounting the back stairs to my quarters, Daisy came running after me.

” Master have been asking for you. Miss. He do wish to see you. He be waiting in the punch room.”

I inclined my head and said : “I will take off my things and then go to the punch room.”

” He have seen you come in. Miss, and have said for you to go right away.”

” I will take off my hat first,” I answered. My heart was beating fast and my colour was heightened. I did not know why I felt antagonistic.

I believed that I should soon be packing my bags and going back to Phillida; and I decided that if it had to be done it should be done with the utmost dignity.

In my room I took off my hat and smoothed my hair. My eyes were certainly amber to-day. They were resentful, which seemed ridiculous before I had met the man. I told myself as I went down to the punch room that I had built up a picture of him because of certain looks I had seen in the faces of those two flighty girls. I had already assured myself that poor Alice had died of a broken heart because she had found herself married to a philanderer.

I knocked at the door.

” Come in.” His voice was strong arrogant, I called it even before I set eyes on him.

He was standing with his back to the fireplace and I was immediately conscious of his great height; he was well over six feet tall, and the fact that he was so thin one could almost say gaunt accentuated, this.

His hair was black but his eyes were light. His hands were thrust into the pockets of his riding breeches and he wore a dark blue coat with a white cravat. There was an air of careless elegance about him as though he cared nothing for his clothes but could not help looking well in them.

He gave an impression of both strength and cruelty. There was sensuality in that face, I decided that came through; but there was much else which was hidden. Even in that moment when I first saw him I knew that there were two men in that body two distinct personalities the Connan TreMellyn who faced the world, and the one who remained hidden.

” So, Miss Leigh, at last we meet.”

He did not advance to greet me, and his manner seemed insolent as though he were reminding me that I was only a governess.