The Real Charlotte. 1 15 



taken by surprise than she was. He did not speak at once, 

 but, taking her hand, pressed it very hard, and when Francie, 

 finding the silence slightly embarrassing, looked up at him 

 with a laugh that was intended to simplify the situation, she 

 was both amazed and frightened to seea moisture suspiciously 

 hke tears in his eyes. 



" You — you look rather washed out," he stammered. 



" You're very polite ! Is that all you have to say to me ? " 

 she said, slipping her hand out of his, and gaily ignoring his 

 tragic tone. " You and your old yacht nearly washed me 

 out altogether ! At all events, you washed the colour out 

 of me pretty well." She put up her hands and rubbed her 

 cheeks. '^ Are you coming in or going out ? Charlotte's 

 lunching at the Bakers', and I'm going into the garden till 

 tea-time, so now you can do as you like." 



" I'll come into the garden with you," he said, stepping 

 aside to let her pass out. " But are you sure your head is 

 well enough for you to go out in this sun ? " 



" Sun your granny ! " responded Francie, walking gingerly 

 across the gravel in her high-heeled house shoes ; " I'm as 

 well as ever I was." 



" Well, you don't look it," he said with a concerned glance 

 at the faint colour in her cheeks and the violet shadows 

 under her eyes. " Come and sit down in the shade ; it's 

 about all you're good for." 



A path skirted the flower-beds and bent round the ever- 

 green-covered slope that rose between the house and the 

 road, and at the bend a lime-tree spread its flat, green boughs 

 lavishly over the path, shading a seat made of half-rotten 

 larch poles that extended its dilapidated arms to the passer- 

 by. 



" Well now, tell me all about it," began Lambert as soon 

 as they had sat down. " What did you feel like when you 

 began to remember it all ? Were you very angry with 

 me?" 



*' Yes, of course, I was angry with you, and I am now 

 this minute, and haven't I a good right, with my new hat at 

 the bottom of the lake ? " 



" I can tell you we were both pretty nearly at the bottom 

 of the lake along with it," said Lambert, who disapproved 

 of this frivolous way of treating the affair. " I don't sup 



