“Rita,” he pleaded, “stop this nonsense, and say you’ll marry me.”

“No, thanks,” said she.  “I’ve chosen.  And I’m well content.”

She gave him a last tantalizing look and went out on the veranda, to go along it to the outdoor stairway.  Arkwright gazed after her through a fierce conflict of emotions.  Was she really in earnest?  Could it be possible that Josh Craig had somehow got a hold over her?  “Or, is it that she doesn’t trust me, thinks I’d back down if she were to throw him over and rely on me?” No, there was something positively for Craig in her tone and expression.  She was really intending to marry him.  Grant shuddered.  “If she only realized what marrying a man of that sort means!” he exclaimed, half aloud.  “But she doesn’t.  Only a woman who has been married can appreciate what sort of a hell for sensitive nerves and refined tastes marriage can be made.”

“Ah—­Mr. Arkwright!”

At this interruption in a woman’s voice—­the voice he disliked and dreaded above all others—­he startled and turned to face old Madam Bowker in rustling black silk, with haughty casque of gray-white hair and ebon staff carried firmly, well forward.  Grant bowed.  “How d’ye do, Mrs. Bowker?” said he with respectful deference.  What he would have thought was the impossible had come to pass.  He was glad to see her.  “She’ll put an end to this nonsense—­this nightmare,” said he to himself.

Madam Bowker had Williams, the butler, and a maid-servant in her train.  She halted, gazed round the room; she pointed with the staff to the floor a few feet from the window and a little back.  “Place my chair there,” commanded she.

The butler and the maid hastened to move a large carved and gilded chair to the indicated spot.  Madam Bowker seated herself with much ceremony.

“Now!” said she.  “We will rearrange the room.  Bring that sofa from the far corner to the other side of this window, and put the tea-table in front of it.  Put two chairs where the sofa was; arrange the other chairs—­” And she indicated the places with her staff.

While the room was still in confusion Mrs. Severence entered.  “What is it, Mamma?” she asked.

“Simply trying to make this frightful room a little less frightful.”

“Don’t you think the pictures should be rehung to suit the new arrangement, ma’am?” suggested Arkwright.

Madam Bowker, suspicious of jest, looked sharply at him.  He seemed serious.  “You are right,” said she.

“But people will be coming in a few minutes,” pleaded Roxana.

“Then to-morrow,” said Madam Bowker reluctantly.  “That will do, Williams—­that will do, Betty.  And, Betty, you must go at once and make yourself neat.  You’ve had on that cap two days.”

“No, indeed, ma’am!” protested Betty.

“Then it was badly done up.  Roxana, how can you bear to live in such a slovenly way?”

“Will you have tea now, Mamma?” was Roxana’s diplomatic reply.