It's a trait of character entirely lacking in my make-up." Then he motioned toward Mary, who was sitting in a hammock, cutting the pages of a new magazine.

"Does _she_ know ?" Joyce nodded, and feeling that they meant her, Mary looked up inquiringly.

Rob beckoned to her ingratiatingly.
"Come into the garden, Maud," he said in a low tone.

"I would have speech with thee." Laughing at his foolishness, but in a flutter of pleasure, Mary sprang up to follow him to the rustic seat midway down the avenue.

As Joyce's parting glance had not forbidden it, she was soon answering his questions to the best of her ability.
"You see," he explained, "it's not out of curiosity that I ask all this.
It's simply as a means of precaution.