She laughed.  “Do you really think that a man like Mr. Bingham would try to flirt with girls without encouragement?  Men like that are as proud as women, and prouder; the lady must always be a step ahead.  But what is the good of talking about such a thing?  It is all nonsense.  Beatrice must have been thinking of some other Geoffrey—­or it was an accident of something.  Why, Mr. Davies, if you for one moment really believed that dear Beatrice could be guilty of such a shameless thing as to carry on a flirtation with a married man, would you have asked her to marry you?  Would you still think of asking such a woman as she must be to become your wife?”

“I don’t know; I suppose not,” he said doubtfully.

“You suppose not.  I know you better than you know yourself.  You would rather never marry at all than take such a woman as she would be proved to be.  But it is no good talking such stuff.  If you have a rival you may be sure it is some unmarried man.”

Owen reflected in his heart that on the whole he would rather it was a married one, since a married man, at any rate, could not legally take possession of Beatrice.  But Elizabeth’s rigid morality alarmed him, and he did not say so.

“Do you know I feel a little upset, Miss Elizabeth,” he answered.  “I think I will be going.  By the way, I promised to say nothing of this to your father.  I hope that you will not do so, either.”

“Most certainly not,” said Elizabeth, and indeed it would be the last thing she would wish to do.  “Well, good-bye, Mr. Davies.  Do not be downhearted; it will all come right in the end.  You will always have me to help you, remember.”

“Thank you, thank you,” he said earnestly, and went.

Elizabeth watched him round the wall of rock with a cold and ugly smile set upon her face.

“You fool,” she thought, “you fool!  To tell me that you ’love her dearly and want to marry her;’ you want to get that sweet face of hers, do you?  You never shall; I’d spoil it first!  Dear Beatrice, she is not capable of carrying on a love affair with a married man—­oh, certainly not!  Why, she’s in love with him already, and he is more than half in love with her.  If she hadn’t been, would she have put Owen off?  Not she.  Give them time, and we shall see.  They will ruin each other—­they must ruin each other; it won’t be child’s play when two people like that fall in love.  They will not stop at sighs, there is too much human nature about them.  It was a good idea to get him into the house.  And to see her go on with that child Effie, just as though she was its mother—­it makes me laugh.  Ah, Beatrice, with all your wits you are a silly woman!  And one day, my dear girl, I shall have the pleasure of exposing you to Owen; the idol will be unveiled, and there will be an end of your chances with him, for he can’t marry you after that.  Then my turn will come.  It is a question of time—­only a question of time!”