"He hopes very much that he may see _you_ again. He has taken an extraordinary fancy to 'my friend Miss Lingard,' and says if I will bring you down to stay at the mines he will put us up--"
"He will never put _me_ up," I interrupted, "and nothing would induce me to put up with him!"
For a moment Mrs. Hayes-Billington stood gravely contemplating me with her wonderful dark eyes.
"Ah well," she said at last, "I grant you that he is a bounder, but then on the other hand he is enormously rich."
"My dear chaperon!" I exclaimed, "surely you are not thinking of trying to make a match for me with a fat foreigner who must be fifty years of age! I would rather be dead than married to such a horror!"
She nodded her head expressively and went slowly out of the room.
As a rule our young men callers were officers upon leave, a nice, cheery set, my partners at dances and tennis. We were always at home on Sunday afternoons, and Mrs. Hayes-Billington and I were most regular attendants at the little hill church in the mornings. One particular afternoon two of our habitués brought a stranger, a certain Captain Vesey. Somehow he was not of the usual type of our visitors, who were simple, unaffected, and genial. This was a fair man, with a long, faded face and a querulous expression. After the first introduction he appeared to freeze into a solid block of ice, and was reserved almost to silence. I noticed him looking hard at Mrs. Hayes-Billington, and, although he reclined in a well-cushioned cane chair and was offered the very best orange pekoe tea and hot cakes, he scarcely contributed a word to the conversation and was obviously dissatisfied with his company and his surroundings. Possibly my name had escaped him, for when someone addressed me as "Miss Lingard" he became faintly interested.
"I know a namesake of yours in the 'Lighthearts.' Any relation?"
"Yes," I answered shortly, "he is my brother."
"Your _brother_," he repeated incredulously.
"Um--er----" he stammered, "I had no idea that Ronnie Lingard had a sister out here."
"I only arrived six weeks ago--I came with Mrs. Hayes-Billington."
"I wanted Ronnie to come here for even a week, but he is so busy and so hard-worked he says it is impossible."
