Nora had not long been gone to church before Miss Harding became cured of her headache to permit of her quitting her own apartment. Perhaps she was of opinion that fresh air would do it good; and, notoriously, fresh air is good for headaches; certainly she looked very far from well. She donned her smartest hat, and one of her prettiest frocks, , for the nonce, the black dress she had been wearing for her lately departed host. She herself with the greatest care, giving minute attention to those small details which mean so much; possibly she was under the impression that costume might have something to do with a cure--yet all her care could not the fact that she was looking ill. When she saw how white she was, and the black marks under the eyes--and actually wrinkles in the corners, and how thin and worn and pinched her face seemed to have suddenly become, she could have cried, only she was painfully conscious that tears had already had too large a share in bringing her to the state in which she was. If she could she would have "assisted nature," only she had nothing with which to do it. Nora's opinions on the subject of "aids to beauty" were strong; Elaine had frequently declared that hers were even stronger. That was the worst of being in the position of " friend"; one had sometimes to pretend that one thought what one really did not think, or so it seemed to her. If she had only had a little "something," in a jar, or in a tube, or a stick, or anything--but she would not have dared to run the risk of allowing Nora to find such a thing in her possession. Moreover, until then she had never wanted it. Still, if she had been left alone--that was how she put it--she might have had it by her. Now that she really wanted something, she had absolutely not a thing--obviously the fault of that was Nora's.  
The consequence was that when at last she sallied out into the grounds she was conscious that she was not looking her best, in spite of her hat and frock--she knew that there was nothing amiss with them; and that morning it was so very desirable that she should look even better than her best, because she was going to meet Mr. Herbert Nash, and was particularly anxious to twist him round her finger. Every one knows that, where a man's concerned, the better one looks the easier that operation is apt to be found. Miss Harding made one slight error; she ought to have remembered that when one is not looking one's best matters are not improved by being in a bad temper. Good temper may almost act as an "aid to beauty," bad temper certainly won't; and, unfortunately, Miss Harding was so conscious of her defects that her temper suffered.
 
Nor was it mended by the fact that the gentleman kept her waiting. Perhaps that headache of hers had had something to do with the accident that she had an appointment to keep. She had asked Mr. Nash to let her see him somewhere on Sunday morning, where they could be alone, and he had told her he would be by the fish-pond at such and such an hour. She herself was a little late at the trysting-place; her toilette had taken longer than she had intended; still she was first. She waited--she had no watch, but it seemed that she waited hours, yet he did not come. By the time he did appear her mood was hardly lover-like; nor, it seemed, was his. He came strolling through the trees, his hands in his jacket pockets, a under his arm, a big cigar in his mouth, his hat at a rakish angle--quite at his ease; there was something in his appearance which would hardly have induced the average client to select him as his legal . Elaine always had a more or less vague feeling that this was so; the feeling was stronger than usual as she watched him coming; yet the man had for her such an intense physical that she refused to let her eyes see what they would have perceived plainly enough if she had only let them. More or less, it was possibly because she realized that that Sunday morning he did not look quite so desirable an example of his sex as he might have done that her greeting was hardly .
 
"You've taken your time in coming."
 
He planted himself in front of her, without removing his hands from his pockets, his cane from under his arm, his cigar from his mouth, or his hat from his head.
 
"Well, what's the hurry? I had to see a man."
 
"You knew I was waiting; you might have let him wait."
 
"I might; but I didn't. Hello! what's wrong?"
 
He was looking her up and down in a way which made her .
 
"What do you mean--what's wrong?"
 
"You look--no offence intended--but you look as if you'd been up all night--a hot night too."
 
"I have a headache, and waiting for you hasn't made it any better."
 
"A headache? My mother used to have headaches, and, my word! when she had them didn't she use to make it warm for us. I used to say----"
 
He stopped, and laughed.
 
"What did you use to say?"
 
"I used to say--again no offence intended--that I'd never marry a woman who had headaches."
 
"I'm not subject to headaches--don't suppose it; I scarcely ever have them; in fact, I don't ever remember having had one before; only--I've been worried."
 
"Have you? that's bad. Don't do it; be like me--don't let yourself be worried by anything." He took out his cigar and surveyed the ash. "I read somewhere the other day that it's worry makes people grow old before their time; I don't believe much I read, but I do believe that. No matter what goes wrong, don't worry, it will come right; that's my theory of life."
 
"It's very easy to talk, it's harder to do. You don't seem very pleased to see me now that you have come."
 
"Don't I? I am; I'm as pleased as Punch."
 
"You don't show it."
 
"How do you expect me to show it? By taking you in my arms and kissing you out here in broad daylight, with you don't know what eyes enjoying the fun? If you'll come over the stile into the wood you shall have all the kissing you want--before lunch."
 
"I shall do nothing of the kind, and I expect you to do nothing of the kind, as you very well know; only----" She suddenly changed the subject. "Did you see Mr. Dawson yesterday, and arrange about the ?"
 
"I saw him, but I can't say I did much more than see him. He didn't seem to be so enthusiastic about the idea of having me for a partner as I expected, and--I can't say I'm very enthusiastic."
 
"What do you mean? The other day you said it was just the thing you would like to be."
 
"Yes, in a sense--in default of something better; but I don't want to be ; since the other day something has occurred to me which may turn out to be better than a partnership with the venerable Mr. Dawson--who, between ourselves, is as an old beast as I ever want to meet--a good deal better."
 
"What is it, Herbert?"
 
She was observing him with--in her eyes, and on her face--an eagerness, a something strained, of which he seemed unconscious, and of which, no doubt, she was unconscious also.
 
"Excuse me, but that's exactly what I can't tell you--not at the present moment. It's still, as you may say, in the embryo--in the making; but it's there."
 
He touched his forehead with his finger, as if to denote that the something in question had a safe location in his brain.
 
"Can't--can't you give me some idea of what it is?"
 
"It depends on what you call an idea. I'll tell you this much; I'm a --a great coup; if I bring it off it'll mean a really big thing; how big I can't tell you, not just now--I don't know myself; but something altogether beyond anything a partnership with old Dawson would mean.
 
"Herbert, I hope it's nothing ."
 
She had run such a risk herself she wanted him to run none; she had had enough of risks, for ever.
 
"That depends again on what you mean by risky. I'm not sure that I shall go in for it; I haven't quite finished turning it over in my mind; I don't altogether see my way; but if, by the time I have finished turning it over in my mind, I do see my way, why, there you are; I'm a starter. Of course there's always the risk of my not bringing it off, though you may bet I'll do my best"--he said this with a very curious smile; a smile which, for some reason, seemed to bring a sense of chill to her heart. "But I shall be no worse off if I don't--there's no risk in that sense. Then will be the time to join myself in partnership with dear old Dawson."
 
She drew a long breath. The position was becoming complicated. She had not dreamed that he would have formed a scheme of his own, which she was to be kept out of, or she would not have gone, the second time, through the study window.
 
"Will--will any money be wanted for what you're thinking of?"
 <............