The lovers wandered on down the rose garden and Philippa looked after them. Then she turned to Straker.
"I've had a long talk with him. I've told him that he must settle down and that he couldn't do a better thing for himself than——"
She paused.
"Well," said Straker, "it looks like it, doesn't it?"
"Yes," said Philippa. "It looks like it."
They talked of other things.
"I am going," she said presently, "to ask Miss Milner to stay with me."
Straker didn't respond. He was thinking deeply. Her face was so mysterious, so ominous, that yet again he wondered what she might be up to. He confessed to himself that this time he didn't know. But he made her promise to go on the river with him the next day. They were to start at eleven-thirty.
At eleven Fanny came to him in the library.