'Have you any objection to my friend?'
Her fingers grew petulant with an orange leaf. Eyeing a spot on it, she said, hesitatingly:
'Any friend of yours I am sure I should like to help. But—but I wish you wouldn't associate with that—that kind of friend. It gives people all sorts of suspicions.'
Evan drew a sharp breath.
The voices of Master Alec and Miss Dorothy were heard shouting on the lawn. Alec gave Dorothy the slip and approached the conservatory on tip- toe, holding his hand out behind him to enjoin silence and secrecy. The pair could witness the scene through the glass before Evan spoke.
'What suspicions?' he asked.
Rose looked up, as if the harshness of his tone pleased her.
'Do you like red roses best, or white?' was her answer, moving to a couple of trees in pots.
'Can't make up your mind?' she continued, and plucked both a white and red rose, saying: 'There! choose your colour by-and-by,' and ask Juley to sew the one you choose in your button-hole.'
She laid the roses in his hand, and walked away. She must have known that there was a burden of speech on his tongue. She saw him move to follow her, but this time she did not linger, and it may be inferred that she wished to hear no more.