I'll have no more of it." She flung towards the window, but Stella Croyle cried out, "A week ago!" and the cry brought her to a stop.

Joan turned and looked doubtfully at Mrs.Croyle.After all, that ridiculous label had not been pasted on to Harry Luttrell as a result of a week's acquaintance.

Harry Luttrell had certainly talked to Stella through the greater part of an evening, his first evening in the house, but they had hardly been together at all since then.

Joan came back slowly into the room.
"So you knew Colonel Luttrell before this week ?" "We were great friends a few years ago." It was disturbing to Joan that Harry Luttrell had never spoken to her of this friendship.

Was it possible that Stella had a claim upon him of which she herself knew nothing?
She sat down at a table in front of Mrs.
Croyle.
"Tell me," she said.
Once, long ago, upon the deck of the _Dragonfly_ at Stockholm, Stella had cried out to Harry Luttrell, "Oh, what a cruel mistake you made when you went out of your way to be kind!" Joan was now to hear how that cry had come to be uttered by a woman in the nethermost distress.