“I came back to tell you,” he said, in a voice from which all trace of his former agitation had passed, “that I relieve you of your promise.  It won’t be necessary for you to see—­Frida.  I thank you all the same, Miss Trotter,” he said, avoiding her eyes with a slight return to his boyish manner.  “It was kind of you to promise to undertake a foolish errand for me, and to wait here, and the best thing I can do is to take myself off now and keep you no longer.  Please don’t ask me why.  Sometime I may tell you, but not now.”

“Then you have seen her?” asked Miss Trotter quickly, premising Frida’s refusal from his face.

He hesitated a moment, then he said gravely, “Yes.  Don’t ask me any more, Miss Trotter, please.  Good-by!” He paused, and then, with a slight, uneasy glance toward the pine grove, “Don’t let me keep you waiting here any longer.”  He took her hand, held it lightly for a moment, and said, “Go, now.”

Miss Trotter, slightly bewildered and unsatisfied, nevertheless passed obediently out into the trail.  He gazed after her for a moment, and then turned and began rapidly to ascend the slope where he had first overtaken her, and was soon out of sight.  Miss Trotter continued her way home; but when she had reached the confines of the wood she turned, as if taking some sudden resolution, and began slowly to retrace her steps in the direction of the pine grove.  What she expected to see there, possibly she could not have explained; what she actually saw after a moment’s waiting were the figures of Frida and Mr. Bilson issuing from the shade!  Her respected employer wore an air of somewhat ostentatious importance mingled with rustic gallantry.  Frida’s manner was also conscious with gratified vanity; and although they believed themselves alone, her voice was already pitched into a high key of nervous affectation, indicative of the peasant.  But there was nothing to suggest that Chris had disturbed them in their privacy and confidences.  Yet he had evidently seen enough to satisfy himself of her faithlessness.  Had he ever suspected it before?

Miss Trotter waited only until they had well preceded her, and then took a shorter cut home.  She was quite prepared that evening for an interview which Mr. Bilson requested.  She found him awkward and embarrassed in her cool, self-possessed presence.  He said he deemed it his duty to inform her of his approaching marriage with Miss Jansen; but it was because he wished distinctly to assure her that it would make no difference in Miss Trotter’s position in the hotel, except to promote her to the entire control of the establishment.  He was to be married in San Francisco at once, and he and his wife were to go abroad for a year or two; indeed, he contemplated eventually retiring from business.  If Mr. Bilson was uneasily conscious during this interview that he had once paid attentions to Miss Trotter, which she had ignored, she never betrayed the least recollection of it.  She thanked him for his confidence and wished him happiness.