Stella's so reserved.

I simply adore her, but she quite prettily and politely keeps me always at arm's length.

If she has ever opened out to anybody it's to Jane Repton.

You see Charlie Repton was Collector at Agra before he came into the Bombay Presidency, and so they went up to Mussoorie for the hot weather.

The Ballantynes happened actually to have the very next bungalow--now wasn't that strange ?--so naturally they became acquainted.