Part 79

"It's a bluff! So long as they think you have the jewels, they will try for them. There's Captain Carrington standing at his office door. Suppose we go over."

"Sitting up to grandfather-in-law!" laughed Croyden. "Distinctly proper, sir, distinctly proper! Go and chat with him; I'll stop for you, presently."

* * * * *

Meanwhile, the two women had continued on to Ashburton.

"Did he recognize me?" Elaine asked, dropping her muff from before her face, when they were past the two men.

"I think not," answered Davila.

"Did he give any indication of it?"

"None, whatever."

"It would make a difference in my--attitude toward him when we met!" she smiled.

"Naturally! a very great difference." Elaine was nervous, she saw. The fact that Croyden did not come out and stop them, that he let them go on, was sufficient proof that he had not recognized her.

"You see, I am assuming that you know why I wanted to come to Hampton," Elaine said, when, her greeting made to Mrs. Carrington, she had carried Davila along to her room.

"Yes, dear," Davila responded.

"And you made it very easy for me to come."

"I did as I thought you would want--and as I know you would do with me were I in a similar position."

"I'm sadly afraid I should not have thought of you, were you----"

"Oh, yes, you would! If you had been in a small town, and Mr. Croyden had told you of my difficulty----"

"As Mr. Macloud told you of mine--I see, dear."

"Not exactly that," said Davila, blushing. "Mr. Macloud has been very attentive and very nice and all that, you know, but you mustn't forget there are not many girls here, and I'm convenient, and--I don't take him seriously."

"How does he take you?" Elaine asked.

"I don't know--sometimes I think he does, and sometimes I think he doesn't!" she laughed. "He is an accomplished flirt and difficult to gauge."

"Well, let me tell you one fact, for your information: there isn't a more indifferent man in Northumberland. He goes everywhere, is in great demand, is enormously popular, yet, I've never known him to have even an affair. He is armor-plated--but he is a dear, a perfect dear, Davila!"

"I know it!" she said, with heightening color--and Elaine said no more, then.

"Shall you prefer to meet Mr. Croyden alone, for the first time, or in company?" Davila asked.

"I confess I don't know, but I think, however, it would be better to have a few words with Colin, first--if it can be arranged."

Miss Carrington nodded. "Mr. Macloud is to come in a moment before luncheon, if he can find an excuse that will not include Mr. Croyden."

"Is an excuse difficult to find--or is any, even, needed?"

Elaine smiled.

"He doesn't usually come before four--that's the tea hour in Hampton."