"Did you not wish to see him ?" For a moment Miss Roberta did not answer, but her face grew pale, and she threw herself back in the chair in which she was sitting.

"Never in my life," she said, "have I been subjected to such mortification! Of course I wished him to come, but to come of his own accord, and not at my bidding.

How do you suppose I would have felt if he had presented himself, and asked me what I wished to say to him?
It is an insult you have offered me." "It is not an insult," said Keswick quietly.

"It was a service of--of affection.

I saw that you were annoyed and troubled by Mr Croft's failure to keep his engagement, and what I did was simply--" "Stop!" said Roberta peremptorily.