"And is nothing of that sort possible here?" asked Gillie Baynton curiously. "This old England has stood still!"
Katty shook her head regretfully. "No, there's nothing of the sort possible here. Of course there are ways and means——"
The other fixed his eyes on her. "Yes?" he said interrogatively.
"I fear that they are not ways and means that Godfrey or Laura would ever lend themselves to."
"Then there's no cutting the Gordian knot?"
But that wasn't quite what Katty meant to imply. "I don't know," she said hesitatingly. "Godfrey would do almost anything to avoid any kind of scandal. But then you see one comes up against Laura——"
He nodded quickly. "Yes, I quite understand that Laura would never do anything she thought wrong—queer, isn't it?"
Gilbert Baynton stayed on at Rosedean for quite another half-hour, but nothing more was said on the subject which was filling his mind and that of his hostess. They walked about the pretty, miniature garden, talking in a desultory way over old times, and about some of the people they had both known years ago.
And then, at last, she took him to the gate. They looked at one another like two augurs, and he said under his breath, "Well, it's a pretty kettle of fish I've come home to, eh? I thought there was some sort of mystery. I'm very much obliged to you for having put me on the track to solve the riddle."
"Ah," she said, "but the riddle isn't solved yet, Mr. Baynton, is it?"