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revealed! It was a delightful little place. Built a little later than Windygates itself, he thought, but none the less missing the terrible gaudiness of the cottage orne of a later period. He left the car drawn well to one side of the drive and let himself into the cottage.
    To his' relief he found that it had been suitably modernised. There was running water, with up-to-date facilities for heating it. Apart from the well-planned kitchen, there were three other rooms, two furnished as bedrooms and one as a sitting-room. Absolutely ideal for a bachelor, Charles thought.
    He decided which of the two bedrooms he would use himself and went down to the car to get his luggage. And as he did so he heard the sound of another car approaching.
    He guessed who it was, and he was right. Judith, driving a small, workmanlike car which he remembered had been parked next to his own in Wyford, was now returning to her home.
    Watching, though as yet unperceived, he saw her eyes widen as she noticed his car. She came to a halt and jumped out to inspect it, and as she did so, Charles approached her. He must have been quieter than he realised, for she did not hear him until he was almost up to her, and then she turned sharply.
    “What are you doing here?” she demanded curtly. “This is private property; you are trespassing.”
    Evidently she had not realised that he had actually come out of the cottage, he thought. Well, the sooner she did, the better.
    ‘'Yes, I know,” he said quietly. “But I am employed on the estate you see! This is where I am to live!”
    Judith stood her ground and Charles was conscious of genuine admiration for her courage. If he had not been what he actually was, but, instead, a trespasser out for what he could get, she might have been in considerable danger, but she never seemed to give a thought to that consideration.
    “Nonsense!” she said crisply. “You’ve chosen the wrong person to tell a tale of that sort to! You see, Windygates happens to belong to me! Consequently, I know all my employees! And you are certainly not one of them!”
    “Then you are Miss Judith Ravensdale?” he asked quietly.
    She stared uncomprehendingly.
    “I am, though I don’t know how you—” she paused and looked at him more narrowly. “Now I recognise you,” she said slowly. “You are the man who was so insolent to me in Wyford ”
    Charles looked at her thoughtfully. An arrogant child this! Quite deliberately, he believed, she had used the word “insolent” as "if to make him realise quite clearly what a gulf was fixed between their social ranks. Of an equal she would far more likely have used the word “rude.”
    “Was I?” he said quietly. “That was not my intention. I thought that I saw an opportunity of preventing trouble and I took it. That was all!”
    “You saw an opportunity of humiliating—” she began impetuously and stopped, evidently realising that she was only, as she probably expressed it, lowering herself to his level by arguing. She made a gesture as if dismissing the whole incident. “Now then, what is all this about being employed here? Who engaged you and in what capacity?”
    “I was engaged by Miss Harriet Ravensdale.” Charles was watching her face narrowly to. see how she took it. “As bailiff, agent—whichever you like to call it—to run the farm.”
    He saw the sudden blenching of her sunburned face, the flaring of her nostrils, and braced himself for the storm.
    “I prefer to call it neither!” she said cuttingly. “You must please understand that there has been some mistake! I am the owner of Windygates, and consequently I choose my assistants. Surely you can see that for yourself?”
    “But I understood from Miss Ravensdale—” Charles began.
    Judith interrupted him.
    “Whatever my aunt has said is beside the point. I absolutely refuse to have you here in any capacity whatsoever, so I suggest that you get into your car and take yourself off as quickly as