'No,--I shall let the place as soon as I can.

Anyway, I shall never return to it--alone!' He turned upon her suddenly.

The tone in which the last word was spoken, the steady ardent look with which it was accompanied, thrilled the hot May air.
A sickening sense of peril, of swift intolerable remorse, rushed upon Lucy.
It gave her strength.
She changed her position, and spoke with perfect self-possession, gathering up her parasol and gloves.
'We really must find the others, Mr.Manisty.They will wonder what has become of us.' She rose as she spoke.

Manisty drew a long breath as he still sat observing her.

Her light, cool dignity showed him that he was either not understood--or too well understood.