"No. It's nothing. I thought Mr. Dollfus was the manager of the Dominion."
"He is in a way. I don't quite understand these things, but I suppose Bryan puts up the money."
"I see," said Fenella, with the accent of full comprehension. "Jack," she said, after a moment, "do you think it's quite right to have a man like that meeting—proper women?"
Barbour jerked his head. He was a rather nice lad, singularly susceptible to the influence of the moment.
"I suppose it isn't, when one thinks of it. We've thrashed this out before, haven't we, Flash? Same law for both, eh?"
"I think men, and women too, ought to choose what kind of people they're going to know, and be made stick to that sort. I don't like mixings. Come, let's go up. Here come some others. Oh, Jack! aren't you glad you're young? I hate men after twenty-five."
The sport was over, together with the short-lived day, before she stood in the same place with the older man. Servants carrying tea-baskets and kettles had made their way up the slope. Lanterns twinkled in the pergola, and gay chat floated down to them. She had kept out of his way all the afternoon without difficulty. It was not until she had made the tantalizingly short descent with one man after another, and finally, amid much vain dissuasion and subsequent applause, headforemost by herself on Jack's steel clipper, that he came to her side and asked her, without a trace of the manner she resented, to take the last run with him. It was growing dark, and meaning glances were not wanting, but she had consented without any hesitation. She felt the glances, but she felt also a strange elation and a consciousness of strength that made her a very different creature to the nervous tongue-tied little girl of the night before. She did not quite know why, but, as she stood, a little breathless from her upward climb, with the first flakes of the new fall melting on her glowing cheek, life, even shadowed life such as was hers, seemed something intensely interesting, and something that, given courage, might be mastered as easily as the sport she was essaying now. He was the first to speak when they reached the sheltered gloom below.
"Don't you think our explanation's about due?"
He saw her smile. "I'm not a bit anxious for it now, Sir Bryan."