“Of gates, perhaps.”

“Well, now, I must be off. Good-night, and thank you so much.”

She held out her hand. He took it in both of his.

“I do hope Mr. Herbert will ask me to another picnic,” he said.

A boy on a bicycle rode past slowly. Instinctively, they shrank into the shadow of a tree.

“Wasn’t that Frank Beckett-Smythe?” whispered Elsie, forgetting to withdraw her imprisoned hand, and turning a startled face to Martin.

“Yes.”

“Where can he be going at this time?”

Martin guessed accurately, but sheer chivalry prevented him from saying more than: