Why shouldn’t she have been staying on Mr. Tanner’s farm?  There was no doubt some one else there—­whom the boy didn’t see.  Perhaps she had herself taken refuge there during the storm.  But all the same Janet felt vaguely troubled.

* * * * *

It was nearly seven o’clock, and the moon, now at the full, was rising over the eastern hill, and balancing the stubbles and the new-turned plough-lands in the upland cup to a pearly whiteness as they lay under the dark woods and a fleecy sky.  There was a sound of a motor in the lane—­the village taxi bringing the travellers home.

In a few more minutes they were in the sitting-room, Rachel throwing off her thick coat with Ellesborough’s help, and declaring that she was not the least tired.

“Don’t believe her!” said Ellesborough, smiling at Janet.  “She is not a truthful woman!”

And his proud eyes returned to Rachel as though now that there was light to see her by he had no other use for them.

Rachel, indeed, was in a radiant mood.  Pallor and depression had vanished; she was full of chatter about the streets, the crowds, the shops.

“But it’s hopeless to go shopping with a man!  He can’t make up his mind one bit!”

“He hadn’t a mind to make up!” murmured Ellesborough, looking up at her as she perched above him on a corner of the table.

She laughed.

“That, I suppose, was what made him want to buy the whole place!  If I’d taken his advice, Janet, I should have been just cleaned out!”

“What’s the good of being economical when one’s going to be married!” said Ellesborough, joyously.  “Why—­”

Rachel interrupted him—­with a hand on his shoulder.

“And we’ve settled our plans, Janet—­that is, if you’re agreeable.  Will you mind looking after the farm for six months?”

“You see, if the armistice is signed—­and we shall know to-morrow,” said Ellesborough, “I shall be free in a month or so, and then we propose to marry and get a passage before Christmas.  I must go home, and she says she’ll come with me!”

A shadow had fallen suddenly, it seemed to Janet, over Rachel’s aspect, but she at once endorsed what Ellesborough had said.

“We can’t settle things—­can we?—­till we’ve seen his people.  We’ve got to decide whether I’ll go to America, or he’ll come here.”

“But we want to say”—­Ellesborough turned gravely to Janet—­“that first and foremost, we wish to do the best for you.”

The sudden tears came into Janet’s eyes.  But they did not show.

“Oh, that’ll be all right.  Don’t bother about me.”

“We shall bother!” said Rachel with energy, “but I’ll tell you all about it presently.  He won’t stay to supper.”

She descended from the table, and Ellesborough rose.  After a little more chat about the day and its doings, he said good-night to Janet.

“How do you get back?”