The trouble was due, she realised, to some new shuffle of Clarice's facile emotions.

She returned the kiss, and refrained from further questions; but, being a practical woman, she rang the bell and ordered the servant to lay two places for lunch.
Clarice sank despondently into the most comfortable chair in the room.
'Not for me,' she said.

'I am sure I couldn't eat anything.' 'You may as well try, dear,' replied Mrs.Willoughby; and she crossed to Clarice and unpinned her hat--a little straw hat, with the daintiest of pink ribbons.

She held it in her hand for a moment, weighing it with a smile which had something of tenderness in it.

She laid a light hand upon the brown hair, touching with a caress the curls about the forehead.