All the way back to St.John's Wood she was afflicted by the thought that it would be impossible to advise a meeting between Stella and Mrs.Rodman.

Yet she had promised Richard to do so.

Once more she found herself sundered from him in sympathies.

Affection between Alice and her there could be none, yet Alice was the one person in the world whom Richard held greatly dear.
The enchanted life of those first weeks at Exmouth was now resumed.

The golden mornings passed with poetry and music; in the afternoon visits were paid to museums and galleries, or to the studios of artists who were Mrs.Westlake's friends, and who, as Adela was pleased to see, always received Stella with reverential homage.