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her eyes, almost too large for her little delicate face, full of light. The picture she presented was lovely indeed. She was a slim creature, so fragile that it was easy to understand why her admirers called her Sylph. Even the feathery curls peeping from under a hat like a shako were ethereal; and her severely cut riding-dress seemed merely to emphasize her fairy-like charm.
    Adam stood gazing at her, his heart in his eyes. She let her whip and gloves fall, and ran forward, uttering in a soft, joyful voice: ‘I knew it! You couldn’t be so close to me and I not know! Adam!’
    Entering the room in her wake, her brother Charles interpreted this for his father’s ear, saying in an undervoice: ‘Saw the hat in the hall, and guessed how it was! Darted off before I knew what she meant to do.’
    She would have thrown herself into Adam’s arms, but he prevented her, catching her hands in a painful grip, and holding her at a distance. He was very pale, and could not command his voice to speak more than her name. He bent his head to kiss her hands, his own shaking.
    Lord Oversley said bracingly: ‘A little less in alt, Julia, if you please! We are all glad to see Adam home again, but there is no occasion for these transports. I don’t think you and Charlie met when you were last in England, Adam, but I daresay you haven’t forgotten each other.’
    His heir, nobly seconding this attempt to create a diversion, said immediately: ‘Lord, no! That is, I remember you , Lynton, though you might not remember me. How do you do?’
    Adam released Julia’s hands. He was still pale, but he replied with tolerable composure: ‘Of course I remember you! I own, however, that I might not have recognized you again.’
    ‘No, well, I was only a schoolboy when you first joined. Jupiter, how much I did envy you!’
    ‘Adam!’ Julia faltered. ‘Oh, what has Papa been saying to you?’
    ‘Now, for heaven’s sake, Julia!’ interrupted Oversley testily. ‘I’ve said nothing Adam doesn’t say himself, so –’
    ‘Oh, no !’ she exclaimed, turning her brimming eyes towards Adam. ‘No, no, I don’t believe it! You haven’t changed! I know you have not!’
    ‘No – not that, but –’
    ‘For shame, Adam!’ she said, showing him an April face. ‘Oh, how vexed I am with you! What a scold you deserve! Did you think I was fickle? Or that I care a rush for wealth? I think I will give you a scold!’
    She had stretched out her hands to him again, an enchanting smile trembling on her lips. He took them, but he dared not trust himself to look into her face, and said, keeping his eyes lowered: ‘I could never doubt you. But when I – when we – when I had the presumption to ask your father –’ He broke off rather hopelessly, and continued after a moment’s pause: ‘I thought then that I should be able to support you. The ugly truth is that I’m not even able to provide for my sisters. If I were to be thinking of marriage now I should be the greatest villain unhung – and your father as bad, if he so much as considered my suit!’ he added, trying for a smile.
    She directed an arch look at her parent, and said audaciously: ‘Pooh! As though we couldn’t bring Papa about our thumbs! Stoopid! ’
    Adam raised his eyes. ‘Julia, you haven’t understood. Dear love, this is no case of being obliged to live for a time in straitened circumstances. I – I have no circumstances. Within a very short space now I shan’t even have a home to offer you.’
    She stared at him incredulously. ‘No home? But – but Fontley – ?’
    ‘I am putting Fontley up for sale.’
    There was a shocked silence. Charles Oversley directed a look of astonished enquiry at his father, but Oversley was looking under suddenly frowning brows at Adam. Julia cried, in a throbbing voice: ‘Oh, no, no, no!’
    Adam did not speak.
    She pulled her hands free. ‘You cannot mean that! Oh, how can you talk so? Dear, dear Fontley! All its associations – the home