‘Jill, my dear,’ for I was thoroughly startled now.  Things were growing serious; but Jill gave me a little push in her childish way.

’Ursie, don’t pretend to look so surprised:  you knew all about it:  I saw it in your face.  Don’t you remember what he said that night, that he did not know what would become of him if I died, that he could not bear it?  Did you see how he looked when he said it?’

I remained silent, for I could not deny that Mr. Tudor had betrayed himself at that moment; but she went on very quietly, ’Ursie dear, I know Mr. Tudor cares for me; he does not always hide it, though he tries to do so.  You see he is so real and honest that he cannot help showing things.’

‘Jill,’ I exclaimed anxiously, ’what would your mother say if she knew this?’

‘I think she does know it,’ replied Jill calmly.  ’She does not care for Mr. Tudor to come so often, but she is good to him all the same.  Neither father nor mother will be pleased about it, because he is not rich, poor fellow; not that I think that matters,’ finished Jill, in a grave, old-fashioned manner.

‘My dear child,’ in a horrified tone, ’you talk as though you were sure of your own mind, and you are hardly seventeen.’

‘So I am sure,’ was the confused answer.  ’If Mr. Tudor cares enough for me to wait for a good many years,—­until I am one-and-twenty,—­he will find me all ready:  of course I belong to him, Ursula:  has he not saved my life?  There is no hurry,’ went on Jill, in her matter-of-fact way; ’he is very nice, and I shall always like him better than any one else; but I should not care to be engaged until I am one-and-twenty.  One wants a little fun and a good deal of work before settling down into an engaged person,’ finished the girl, with a droll little laugh.

I was spared the necessity of any reply to this surprising confession by the entrance of our three visitors, for Max had encountered them at the station, of course by accident, and had walked up with them.  That fact was sufficient to account for Gladys’s soft bloom and the satisfied look in her eyes:  she looked so lovely in the new furs Giles had bought her, that I did not wonder that Max was a little absent in his replies to me.  Jill had made some excuse and left us, and it was really a very good idea of Giles’s to ask me to come out on the balcony and look at the sea.  He wrapped me in his plaid and placed me in a sheltered corner, and we stood watching the twinkling lights, and the dark water under the glimmer of starlight.  He had a great deal to tell me, first how happy Eric was in his new work, and what cheerful letters he wrote to Gladys, and next about Captain Hamilton, with whom he professed himself much pleased.

’Lady Betty is just as much a child as ever.  It is ridiculous to think of her as a married woman,’ he went on; ’but Claude declares himself to be perfectly satisfied.  Well, there is no accounting for tastes,’ with a change of intonation that was very intelligible.