“Miss Vanderpoel has evidently been enjoying her visit to Stornham Court,” she said, after her first few sentences.  “I met Mrs. Worthington at the Embassy, and she said she had buried herself in the country.  But I think she must have run up to town quietly for shopping.  I saw her one day in Piccadilly, and I was almost sure Lady Anstruthers was with her in the carriage—­almost sure.”

Mrs. Vanderpoel’s heart quickened its beat.

“You were so young when she married,” she said.  “I daresay you have forgotten her face.”

“Oh, no!” Milly protested effusively.  “I remember her quite well.  She was so pretty and pink and happy-looking, and her hair curled naturally.  I used to pray every night that when I grew up I might have hair and a complexion like hers.”

Mrs. Vanderpoel’s kind, maternal face fell.

“And you were not sure you recognised her?  Well, I suppose twelve years does make a difference,” her voice dragging a little.

Milly saw that she had made a blunder.  The fact was she had not even guessed at Rosy’s identity until long after the carriage had passed her.

“Oh, you see,” she hesitated, “their carriage was not near me, and I was not expecting to see them.  And perhaps she looked a little delicate.  I heard she had been rather delicate.”

She felt she was floundering, and bravely floundered away from the subject.  She plunged into talk of Betty and people’s anxiety to see her, and the fact that the society columns were already faintly heralding her.  She would surely come soon to town.  It was too late for the first Drawing-room this year.  When did Mrs. Vanderpoel think she would be presented?  Would Lady Anstruthers present her?  Mrs. Vanderpoel could not bring her back to Rosy, and the nature of the change which had made it difficult to recognise her.

The result of this chance encounter was that she did not sleep very well, and the next morning talked anxiously to her husband.

“What I could see, Reuben, was that Milly Bowen had not known her at all, even when she saw her in the carriage with Betty.  She couldn’t have changed as much as that, if she had been taken care of, and happy.”

Her affection and admiration for her husband were such as made the task of soothing her a comparatively simple thing.  The instinct of tenderness for the mate his youth had chosen was an unchangeable one in Reuben Vanderpoel.  He was not a primitive man, but in this he was as unquestioningly simple as if he had been a kindly New England farmer.  He had outgrown his wife, but he had always loved and protected her gentle goodness.  He had never failed her in her smallest difficulty, he could not bear to see her hurt.  Betty had been his compeer and his companion almost since her childhood, but his wife was the tenderest care of his days.  There was a strong sense of relief in his thought of Betty now.  It was good to remember the fineness of her perceptions, her clearness of judgment, and recall that they were qualities he might rely upon.