"Well met, fair maid," he said, bowing ironically.

"Will you please knock if you want me?"

"Is it the custom?"

"It is what I expect."

"You will always expect more than you receive, Miss ... Carlyon."

"My name is Kerensa Carlee."

"I shall never forget it, although you did adopt Carlyon on one occasion. You've grown beautiful, my dear."

"What did you want of me?"

His smile was mocking. "Everything," he retorted. "Just everything."

"I am maid to your sister-in-law."

"I know all about that. That's why I came down from Oxford. The news reached me, you see."

"I have an idea that it was for a very different reason that you came back."

"Of course you have! Servants listen at doors. And I'll swear there was some consternation when the news was brought."

"I do not listen at doors. But knowing you and knowing why young men are usually sent down ..."

"So knowledgeable you have become. I remember a time... . But why hark back? The future promises to be so much more interesting, I'm looking forward to our future, Kerensa."

"I cannot see how yours and mine can have anything in common."

"Can you not. Then you do need educating."

"I am satisfied with my education."

"Never be satisfied, Kerensa, my dear one. It's unwise. Let us begin that education of yours without delay. Like this... ."

He was about to seize me but I held him off angrily. He shrugged his shoulders.

"There must be a wooing? Oh, Kerensa, such a waste of time! Don't you think we have wasted too much already?"

I said angrily: "I work here ... unfortunately. But that does not mean I am your servant. Understand this ... please."

"Why, Kerensa, don't you know that all I want is to please you."

"Then that is easy. If you will keep out of my way I shall willingly keep out of yours—and that will give me great pleasure."

"What words! What airs and graces! I shouldn't have thought it of you, Kerensa. So I am not to have even a kiss? Well, I shall be here now ... and so shall you. Under the same roof. Is that not a delightful thought?"

He left me then but there was an ominous look in his eyes. There was no lock on my door, and I was alarmed.

The following evening Justin, Johnny and Lady St. Larnston retired to her ladyship's sitting room after dinner and there was a great deal of serious conversation. Haggety, who had served vine there, told us in the kitchen that Mr. Johnny was being put through his paces and they were seriously discussing his future. All were very concerned, it seemed, except Johnny.

I was putting Judith's clothes away when she came up. I brushed her hair as she commanded. It soothed her. She said I had magic in my fingers. I had discovered that I had a gift for hairdressing. It was my most successful accomplishment as a lady's maid. I tried different styles on her hair and sometimes I would copy them with my own. This delighted Judith and because she was generous by nature she often gave me some little gift and tried to please me, when she remembered it; but chiefly her thoughts were concerned with her husband.

Preparing her for bed was a ritual and this night there was an air of satisfaction about her. "You are aware of the trouble with Mr. Johnny, Kerensa," she said.

"Yes, Madam. I have heard it."

She shrugged her shoulders. "It's unfortunate. Inevitable though. He is not like ... his brother."

"No, Madam. Two brothers could not be less alike."

She smiled; more at peace than I had ever seen her before.

I braided her hair and wound it round her head. She looked lovely in her flowing negligee.

"You are very beautiful tonight. Madam," I told her, because I felt a need to comfort her—perhaps after what I had heard in the kitchen.

"Thank you, Kerensa," she said.

Soon after that she dismissed me, saying she would want me no more that night.

I went along to Mellyora's room, and found her sitting by the window looking out on the moonlit garden. Her tray—symbol of her lonely life-was on a nearby table.

"So you are free for once," I said.

"Not for long." She grimaced. "I have to go along and sit with Sir Justin in a few minutes."

"They work you too hard."

"Oh, I don't mind it."

She looked radiant. The look, I thought, of a woman in love. Oh, Mellyora, I thought, you'd be very vulnerable, I'm afraid.

She went on: "Poor Sir Justin. It is dreadful to see him as he is and think of what he was. I remember Papa... ."

"It's unfair that you should have to help nurse him too," I said.

"It might be worse."

Yes, I thought. You might be a drudge in a house where there was no Justin. That's what you mean, isn't it?

Then I asked myself what had happened to my relationship with Mellyora. Once I should have said to her the things I was now thinking.

It was not that we had changed. It was just that this dangerous situation was too delicate a matter, too important to Mellyora for her to wish to discuss it or take advice, even from me.

"And now," I said, changing the subject. "Johnny is back."

"Oh ... Johnny! It's not entirely unexpected. Johnny will always be Johnny."

She was almost smug. How different was Justin, she was implying. Then I thought of Judith who had said almost the same. Two women— both in love with the same man—deeply and passionately; for although Mellyora was calm and Judith was far from calm, both were the victims of a deep emotion.

"I wish he had not come back home," I said.

"You are afraid of him?"

"Not exactly afraid, but he can be a nuisance. Oh, never fear, I shall know how to handle him."

"I am sure you will." She turned to look out of the window and I knew that she was not thinking of Johnny and me because her thoughts were all for Justin, and it would be like that in the future. She was obsessed by her love even as Judith was; fortunately for Mellyora hers was a more balanced nature.

Some bond had snapped between us, for as her emotion deepened for one person so there became less time in her life for others.

I asked her then if she ever heard from Kim; she was startled and for a few seconds seemed as though it were an effort to remember him.

"Kim ... oh no. He wouldn't write. He always said he was no letter writer, but that he would come back one day."

"You think he will?"

"Of course. He was certain of it. It was a sort of promise and Kim always keeps promises."

I felt great pleasure. I pictured him coming back to St. Larnston, walking into the Abbas one day. I could imagine his voice, "Why, Kerensa, you've become a fascinating young lady." And when he saw Mellyora, obsessed by Justin, he would become more my friend than hers. I was certain that you could make life go the way you wanted it, but was it possible to bring the people you wanted back to you? I must ask Granny.

Mellyora said that it was time she went to Sir Justin, so I left her and returned to my room. I stood at the window for some time, thinking of Kim and the night of the ball. Then I went to my mirror and lighted the candles there. Had I changed much since that night? I had become older, wiser, more accomplished. I had read a great deal. I was making myself worthy ... of Kim? No. Of the person I intended to be.

I took the pins out of my hair and shook it about my shoulders. Thick, luxuriant, it was more beautiful than Judith's. Deftly I began to coil it high on my head. Where was my Spanish comb? Where was my mantilla? I adjusted them and stood enraptured by my own reflection. Narcissus! I mocked. In love with yourself.

I went to the window. Out there were the ring of stones that never seemed to be far from my thoughts. I had always promised myself a visit by moonlight. Why not? I was free. I believed Johnny was closeted with his brother, and there was no danger of his being around. Now was the time.

I was soon there. How exciting they seemed by moonlight. Alive! The Six Virgins! And I made a seventh. Did it really happen as the legend said? Did they in truth dance here? Were they struck down in their defiance and turned to stone, to stand on this spot as the centuries passed? How fortunate they were! Sudden death was preferable to a lingering one. I thought of the seventh—the one who had been dragged to the hollow wall, the one who was shut in to die; and I was filled with a momentary melancholy.

Footsteps! The sound of a low whistle. I leaned against one of the stones, waiting, some instinct telling me who had followed me here.

"So the seventh is here tonight?"

I felt furious with myself for coming. Johnny had seen me leave the house after all. In that moment I hated him.

He had stepped into the circle of stones and was grinning at me.

"Miss Carlyon in person!" he cried. "The Spanish lady."

"Is there any reason why I should not dress my hair as I wish?"

"There's every reason why you should since it so becomes you."

"I wish you would not follow me."

"Follow you? But why should I not visit the Virgins if I wish? They are not exclusively yours, are they?"

"Since you have come to see the Virgins, I will leave you."

"There's no hurry. I prefer the seventh to all the six put together. Ladies of stone are not to my fancy. Yet the seventh would have me believe she is composed of the same unyielding material. Fm going to prove to her that she is not."

"Is it impossible for you to believe that I do not want your advances?"

"Quite impossible."