“How could one expect such a delightful thing as this?” he said, with a touch of ironic amiability.  “It is more than one deserves.”

“It is very polite of you to say that,” answered Betty.

He was thinking rapidly as he stood and gazed at her.  There were, in truth, many things to think of under circumstances so unexpected.

“May I ask you to excuse my staring at you?” he inquired with what Rosy had called his “awful, agreeable smile.”  “When I saw you last you were a fierce nine-year-old American child.  I use the word ‘fierce’ because—­if you’ll pardon my saying so—­there was a certain ferocity about you.”

“I have learned at various educational institutions to conceal it,” smiled Betty.

“May I ask when you arrived?”

“A short time after you went abroad.”

“Rosalie did not inform me of your arrival.”

“She did not know your address.  You had forgotten to leave it.”

He had made a mistake and realised it.  But she presented to him no air of having observed his slip.  He paused a few seconds, still regarding her and still thinking rapidly.  He recalled the mended windows and roofs and palings in the village, the park gates and entrance.  Who the devil had done all that?  How could a mere handsome girl be concerned in it?  And yet—­here she was.

“When I drove through the village,” he said next, “I saw that some remarkable changes had taken place on my property.  I feel as if you can explain them to me.”

“I hope they are changes which meet with your approval.”

“Quite—­quite,” a little curtly.  “Though I confess they mystify me.  Though I am the son-in-law of an American multimillionaire, I could not afford to make such repairs myself.”

A certain small spitefulness which was his most frequent undoing made it impossible for him to resist adding the innuendo in his last sentence.  And again he saw it was a folly.  The impersonal tone of her reply simply left him where he had placed himself.

“We were sorry not to be able to reach you.  As it seemed well to begin the work at once, we consulted Messrs. Townlinson & Sheppard.”

“We?” he repeated.  “Am I to have the pleasure,” with a slight wryness of the mouth, “of finding Mr. Vanderpoel also at Stornham?”

“No—­not yet.  As I was on the spot, I saw your solicitors and asked their advice and approval—­for my father.  If he had known how necessary the work was, it would have been done before, for Ughtred’s sake.”

Her voice was that of a person who, in stating obvious facts, provides no approach to enlightening comment upon them.  And there was in her manner the merest gracious impersonality.

“Do I understand that Mr. Vanderpoel employed someone to visit the place and direct the work?”

“It was really not difficult to direct.  It was merely a matter of engaging labour and competent foremen.”