Chapter 10

X.

WITH a sigh of relief Susy drew the pins from her hat and threw
herself down on the lounge.

The ordeal she had dreaded was over, and Mr. and Mrs. Vanderlyn
had safely gone their several ways. Poor Ellie was not noted
for prudence, and when life smiled on her she was given to
betraying her gratitude too openly; but thanks to Susy's
vigilance (and, no doubt, to Strefford's tacit co-operation),
the dreaded twenty-four hours were happily over. Nelson
Vanderlyn had departed without a shadow on his brow, and though
Ellie's, when she came down from bidding Nick good-bye, had
seemed to Susy less serene than usual, she became her normal
self as soon as it was discovered that the red morocco bag with
her jewel-box was missing. Before it had been discovered in the
depths of the gondola they had reached the station, and there
was just time to thrust her into her "sleeper," from which she
was seen to wave an unperturbed farewell to her friends.

"Well, my dear, we've been it through," Strefford remarked with
a deep breath as the St. Moritz express rolled away.

"Oh," Susy sighed in mute complicity; then, as if to cover her
self-betrayal: "Poor darling, she does so like what she likes!"

"Yes--even if it's a rotten bounder," Strefford agreed.

"A rotten bounder? Why, I thought--"

"That it was still young Davenant? Lord, no--not for the last
six months. Didn't she tell you--?"

Susy felt herself redden. "I didn't ask her--"

"Ask her? You mean you didn't let her!"

"I didn't let her. And I don't let you," Susy added sharply, as
he helped her into the gondola.

"Oh, all right: I daresay you're right. It simplifies things,"
Strefford placidly acquiesced.

She made no answer, and in silence they glided homeward.

Now, in the quiet of her own room, Susy lay and pondered on the
distance she had travelled during the last year. Strefford had
read her mind with his usual penetration. It was true that
there had been a time when she would have thought it perfectly
natural that Ellie should tell her everything; that the name of
young Davenant's successor should be confided to her as a matter
of course. Apparently even Ellie had been obscurely aware of
the change, for after a first attempt to force her confidences
on Susy she had contented herself with vague expressions of
gratitude, allusive smiles and sighs, and the pretty "surprise"
of the sapphire bangle slipped onto her friend's wrist in the
act of their farewell embrace.

The bangle was extremely handsome. Susy, who had an
auctioneer's eye for values, knew to a fraction the worth of
those deep convex stones alternating with small emeralds and
brilliants. She was glad to own the