Maryon Rooke had been the first cause of all the trouble.

Then she herself had intervened to distract Nan's thoughts by asking Peter to be a pal to her.

And the net result of it all was that Peter, irrevocably bound to another woman, had fallen in love with Nan, while the latter was philandering desperately with a totally unsuitable second string.
"Dreaming, Kitty ?" said a voice, and looking up with the frown still wrinkling her pretty brows, she saw Lord St.John approaching.
"If I am, it must be a nightmare, I think!" she answered lugubriously.
The old man's kindly face took on a look of concern.
"Any nightmare that I can dispel, my dear ?" Kitty patted the fine-bred, wrinkled old hand that rested on the edge of the hammock.
"I know you love to play the fairy godfather to us all, but in this case I'm afraid you can't help.

In fact, you've done all you could--made her free to choose." "It's Nan, then ?" he said quickly.
Kitty laughed rather mirthlessly.
"'M.

Isn't it always Nan who is causing us anxiety one way or another ?" "And just now ?" "Haven't you guessed?
I'm sure you have!" St.John's lips twisted in a whimsical smile.
"I suppose you mean that six-foot-odd of bone and muscle from Trenby Hall ?" "Of course I mean him! Just because she's miserable over that Rooke business and because Roger is as insistent as a man with that kind of chin always is, she'll be Mrs.Roger before we can stop her--and miserable ever after!" "Isn't the picture a trifle overdrawn ?" St.John pulled forward one of the garden chairs and sat down.