Winterborne was looking at her, his eyes lingering on a flower that she wore in her bosom.
Almost with the abstraction of a somnambulist he stretched out his hand and gently caressed the flower.
She drew back.

"What are you doing, Giles Winterborne!" she exclaimed, with a look of severe surprise.

The evident absence of all premeditation from the act, however, speedily led her to think that it was not necessary to stand upon her dignity here and now.

"You must bear in mind, Giles," she said, kindly, "that we are not as we were; and some people might have said that what you did was taking a liberty." It was more than she need have told him; his action of forgetfulness had made him so angry with himself that he flushed through his tan.

"I don't know what I am coming to!" he exclaimed, savagely.