A man was coming towards me, and there was something familiar about him which made my heart beat faster.

He started when he saw me; then he began to smile and I recognised him as the man I had met on the train.

” So we meet,” he said. ” I knew our reunion would not be long delayed. Why, you look as though you have seen a ghost. Has your stay at Mount Mellyn made you look for ghosts? I’ve heard some say that there is a ghostly atmosphere about the place.”

” Who are you?” I asked.

” My name is Peter Nansellock. I have to confess to a little deception.”

” You’re Miss Celestine’s brother?”

He nodded. ” I knew who you were when we met in the train. I deliberately bearded you in your carriage. I saw you sitting there, looking the part, and I guessed. Your name on the labels of your baggage confirmed my guess for I knew that they were expecting Miss Martha Leigh at Mount Mellyn.”

” I am comforted to learn that my looks conform with the part I have been called upon to play in life.”

” You really are a most untruthful young lady. I remember I had reason to reprimand you for the same sort of thing at our first meeting. You are in fact quite discomfited to learn that you were taken for a governess.”

I felt myself grow pink with indignation. ” Because I am a governess that is no reason why I should be forced to accept insults from strangers.”

I rose from the tree trunk, but he laid a hand on my arm and said pleadingly: ” Please let us talk awhile. There is much I have to say to you. There are things you should know.”

My curiosity overcame my dignity and I sat down.

” That’s better. Miss Leigh. You see I remember your name.”

” Most courteous of you! And how extraordinary that you should first notice a mere governess’s name and then keep it in your memory.”

” You are like a hedgehog,” he retorted. ” One only has to mention the word governess’ and up come your spines. You will have to learn resignation. Aren’t we taught that we must be content in that station of life to which we have been called?”

” Since I resemble a hedgehog, at least I am not spineless.”

He laughed and then was immediately sober. ” I do not possess second sight. Miss Leigh,” he said quietly. ” I know nothing of palmistry. I deceived you, Miss Leigh.”

” Do you think I was deceived for a moment?”

” For many moments. Until this one, in fact, you have thought of me with wonder.”

” Indeed, I have not thought of you at all.”

” More untruths! I wonder if a young lady with such little regard for veracity is worthy to teach our little Alvean.”

” Since you are a friend of the family your best policy would be to warn them at once.”

” But if Connan dismissed his daughter’s governess, bow sad that would be! I should wander through these woods without hope of meeting her.”

“I see you are a frivolous person.”

” It’s true.” He looked grave. ” My brother was frivolous. My sister is the only commendable member of the family.”

” I have already met her.”

” Naturally. She is a constant visitor to Mount Mellyn. She dotes on Alvean.”

” Well, she is a very near neighbour.”

” And we. Miss Leigh, shall in future be very near neighbours How does that strike you?”

” Without any great force.”

” Miss Leigh, you are cruel as well as untruthful. I hoped you would be grateful for my interest. I was going to say, if ever things should become intolerable at Mount Mellyn you need only walk over to Mount Widden. There you would find me most willing to help. I feel sure that among my wide circle of acquaintances I could find someone who is in urgent need of a governess.”

” Why should I find life intolerable at Mount Mellyn?”

” It’s a tomb of a place, Connan is overbearing, Alvean is a menace to anyone’s peace, and the atmosphere since Alice’s death is not congenial.”

I turned to him abruptly and said : ” You told me to beware of Alice.

What did you mean by that? “

” So you remember?”

” It seemed a strange thing to say.”

” Alice is dead,” he said, ” but somehow she remains. That’s what I always feel at Mount Mellyn. Nothing was the same after the day she went.”

” How did she die?”

” You have not heard the story yet?”

“No.”

” I should have thought Mrs. Polgrey or one of those girls would have told you. But they haven’t, eh? They’re probably somewhat in awe of the governess.”

” I should like to hear the story.”

” It’s a very simple one. The sort of thing which must hjappen in many a home. A wife finds life with her husband intolerable. She walks out with another man. It’s ordinary enough, you see. Only Alice’s story had a different ending.”

He looked at the tips of his boots as he had when we were travelling in the train to Liskeard together. ” The man in the case was my brother,” he went on.

” Geoffry Nansellock!” I cried.

” So you have heard of him!”

I thought of Gillyflower, whose birth had so distressed her mother that she had walked into the sea.

” Yes,” I said, ” I’ve heard of Geoffry Nansellock. He was evidently a philanderer.”

” It sounds a harsh word to apply to poor old Geoff. He had charm … all the charm of the family, some say.” He smiled at me. ” Others may think he did not get it all. He was not a bad sort. I was fond of old Geoff. His great weakness was women. He loved women; he found them irresistible. And women love men who love them. How can they help it?

I mean, it is such a compliment, is it not? One by one they fell victim to his charm. “

“He did not hesitate to in dude other men’s wives among his victims

” Spoken like a true governess! Alas, my dear Miss Leigh, it appeared he did not … since Alice was among them. It is true that all was not well at Mount Mellyn. Do you think Connan would be an easy man to live with?”

” It is surely not becoming for a governess to discuss her employer in such a manner.”

” What a contrary young lady you are, Miss Leigh. You make the most of your situation. You use the governess when you wish to, and then expect others to ignore her when you do not wish her to be recognised.

I believe that anyone who is obliged to live in a house should know something of its secrets. “

“What secrets?”

He bent a little closer to me. ” Alice was afraid of Connan. Before she married him she had known my brother. She and Geoffry were on the train … running away together.”

” I see.” I drew myself away from him because I felt it was undignified to be talking of past scandals in this way, particularly as these scandals had nothing whatever to do with me.

” They identified Geoffry although he was badly smashed up. There was a woman dose to him. She was so badly burned that it was impossible to recognise her as Alice. But a locket she was wearing was recognised as one she was known to possess. That was how she was identified … and of course there was the fact that Alice had disappeared.”

” How dreadful to die in such a way!”

” The prim governess is shocked because poor Alice died in the act of forming a guilty partnership with my charming but erring brother.”

” Was she so unhappy at Mount Mellyn?”

” You have met Connan. Remember he knew that she had once been in love with Geoffry, and Geoffry was still in the offing. I can imagine life was hell for Alice.”

” Well, it was very tragic,” I said briskly. ” But it is over Why did you say, Beware of Alice,” as though she were still there? “

” Are you fey. Miss Leigh? No, of course you are not. You are a governess with more than your fair share of commonsense. You would not be influenced by fantastic tales.”

“What fantastic tales?”

He grinned at me, coming even closer, and I realised that in a very short time it would be dark. I was anxious to get back to the house, and my expression became a little impatient.

” They recognised her locket, not her. There are some who think that it was not Alice who was killed on the train with Geoffry.”

” Then if it was not, where is she?”

” That is what some people ask themselves. That is why there are long shadows at Mount Mellyn.”

I stood up. ” I must get back. It will soon be dark.”

He was standing beside me a little taller than I and our eyes met.

” I thought you should know these things,” he said almost gently. ” It seems only fair that you should know.”

I began walking back in the direction from which I had come.

” My duties are with the child,” I answered somewhat brusquely. ” I am not here for any other purpose.”

‘ But how can even a governess, overburdened with common sense though she may be, know to what purposes fate will put . her? “

” I think I know what is expected of me.” I was alarmed because he walked beside me; I wanted to escape from him that I might be alone with my thoughts. I felt this man impaired my precious dignity to which I was clinging with that determination only possible to those who are in constant fear of losing what little they possess. He had mocked me in the train. I felt he was waiting for an opportunity to do so again.

” I am sure you do.”

“There is no need for you to escort me back to the house.”

” I am forced to contradict you. There is every reason.”

” Do you think I am incapable of looking after myself?”

” I think none more capable of doing that than yourself. But as it happens I was on my way to call, and this is the most direct way to the house.”