” Good show. Miss Leigh. I did not know anyone could get so much out of Royal Rover.”

I patted Royal Rover and said, more for his hearing than anyone else’s: “I couldn’t have had a better partner.”

Then Peter and I trotted off; I with my rose bowl, he with his spoon.

Peter said: ” If you had been on Jacinth you would have been the undisputed winner.”

” I should still have had to compete against you on something else.”

” Jacinth would win any race … just look at her. Isn’t she perfection? Never mind, you got the rose bowl.”

” I shall always feel that it is not entirely mine.”

” When you arrange your roses you will aways think, Part of this belonged to that man … what was his name? He was always charming to me, but I was a little add with him. I’m sorry now.”

” I rarely forget people’s names, and I feel I have nothing to regret in my conduct towards you.”

” There is a way out of this rose bowl situation. Suppose we set up house together. It could have a place of honour there. Ours,” we could say, and both feel happy about it. “

I was angry at this flippancy, and I said: ” We should, I am sure, feel far from happy about everything else.”

And I rode away.

I wanted to be near the Judges’ stand when Alvean appeared. I wanted to watch Connan’s face as his daughter performed. I wanted to be dose when she took her prize—which I was sure she would, for she was eager to win and she had worked hard. The jumps should offer no difficulty to her.

The elementary jumping contest for eight-year-olds began and I was feverishly impatient, waiting for Alvean’s turn as I watched those little girls and boys go through their performances. But there was no Alvean. The contest was over and the results announced.

I felt sick with disappointment. So she had panicked at the last moment. My work had been in vain. When the great moment came her fears had returned.

When the prizes were being given I went in search of Alvean, but I could not find her, and as the more advanced jumping contest for the eight-year-old group was about to begin, it occurred to me that she must have gone back to the house. I pictured her abject misery because after all our talk, all our practice, her courage had failed her at the critical moment.

I wanted to get away, for now my own petty triumph meant nothing to me, and I wanted to find Alvean quickly, to comfort her if need be, and I felt sure she would need my comfort.

I rode back to Mount Mellyn, hung up my saddle and bridle, gave Royal Rover a quick rub-down and a drink, and left him munching an armful of hay in his stall while I went into the house.

The back door was unlatched and I went in. The house seemed very quiet. I guessed that all but Mrs. Polgrey were at the horse show.

Mrs. Polgrey would probably be in her room having her afternoon doze.

I went up to my room and called Alvean as I went.

There was no answer so I hurried through the school room to her room which was deserted. Perhaps she had not come back to the house. I then remembered that I had not seen Prince in the stables. But then I had forgotten to look in his stall.

I came back to my room and stood uncertainly at the window. I thought, I’ll go back to the show. She’s probably still there.

And as I stood at the window I knew that someone was in Alice’s apartments. I was not sure how I knew. It may only have been a shadow across the window-pane. But I was certain that someone was there. “

Without thinking very much of what I would do when I discovered who was there I ran from my room, through the gallery to Alice’s rooms. My riding-boots must have made a clatter along the gallery. I threw open the door of the room and shouted: ” Who is here? Who is it?”

No one was in the room, but I saw in that fleeting second, the communicating door between the two rooms dose.

I had a feeling that it might be Alvean who was there, and I was sure that Alvean’needed me at this moment. I had to find her, and any fear I might have had, disappeared. I ran across the dressing room and opened the door of the bedroom. I looked round the room. I ran to the curtains and felt them. There was no one there. Then I ran to the other door and opened it. I was in another dressing room and the communicating door similar to that in Alice’s was open. I went through and immediately I knew that I was in Connan’s bedroom for I saw a cravat, which he had been wearing that morning, flung on the dressing table. I saw his dressing gown and slippers.

The sight of these made me blush and realise that I was trespassing in a part of the house where I had no right to be.

But someone other than Conhan had been there before me. Who was it?

I went swiftly across the bedroom, opened the door and found myself in the gallery.

There was no sign of anyone there so I went slowly back to my room.

Who had been in Alice’s room? Who was it who haunted the place?

” Alice,” I said aloud. ” Is it you, Alice?”

Then I went down to the stables. I wanted to get back to the show and find Alvean.

I had saddled Royal Rover and was riding out of the stable yard when I saw Billy Trehay hurrying towards the house.

He said: “Oh Miss, there’s been an accident. A terrible accident.”

“What?” I stammered.

” It’s Miss Alvean. She took a toss in the jumping.”

” But she wasn’t in the jumping!” I cried.

” Yes she were. In the eight-year-olds. Advanced class. It was the high jump. Prince stumbled and fell. They went rolling over and over…”

For a moment I lost control of myself; I covered my face with my hands and cried out in protest.

” They were looking for you. Miss,” he said.

” Where is she then?”

” She were down there in the field. They’m afraid to move her. They wrapped her up and now they’m waiting for Dr. Pengelly to come. They think she may have broken some bones. Her father’s with her. He kept saying, Where’s Miss Leigh?” And I saw you leave so I came after you. I think perhaps you’d better be getting down there. Miss . since he was asking for you like. “

I turned away and rode as fast as I dared down the hill into the village, and as I rode I prayed, and scolded:

” Oh God, let her be all right. Oh Alvean, you little fool! It would have been enough to take the simple jumps. That would have pleased him enough. You could have done the high jumps next year. Alvean, my poor, poor child.” And then: “It’s his fault. It’s all his fault. If he had been a human parent this wouldn’t have happened.”

And so I came to the field. I shall never forget what I saw there:

Alvean lying unconscious on the grass, and the group round her and others standing about. There would be no more competitions that day.

For a moment I was terrified that she had been killed.

Connan’s face was stern as be looked at me.

“Miss Leigh,” he said, “I’m glad you’ve come. There’s been an accident. Alvean …”

I ignored him and knelt down beside her.

“Alvean … my dear …” I murmured.

She opened her eyes then. She did not look like my arrogant little pupil. She was just a lost and bewildered child.

But she smiled.

“Don’t go away …” she said.

“No, I’ll stay here.”

” You did go … before …” she murmured, and I had to bend low to catch her words.

And then I knew. She was not speaking to Martha Leigh, the governess.

She was speaking to Alice.

Dr. Pengelly had arrived on the field and had diagnosed a broken tibia; but he could not say if any further damage had been done. He set the fractured bone and drove Alvean back to Mount Mellyn in his carriage while Connan and I rode back together in silence.

Alvean was taken to her room and given a sedative by the doctor.

” Now,” he said, ” there is nothing we can do but wait. I’ll come back again in a few hours’ time. It may be that the child is suffering acute shock. In the meantime we will keep her warm and let her sleep. She should sleep for several hours, and at the end of that time we shall know how deeply she has suffered from this shock.”

When the doctor had left, Connan said to me: “Miss Leigh, I want to have a talk with you. Come to the punch room … now, will you please.”

I followed him there and he went on:

” There is nothing we can do but wait. Miss Leigh. We must try to be calm.”

I realised that he could never have seen me agitated as I was now, and he had probably considered me incapable of such deep feeling.

Impulsively I said: ” I find it hard to be as calm about my charge as you are about your daughter, Mr. TreMellyn.”

I was so frightened and worried that I wanted to blame someone for what had happened so I blamed him.

” Whatever made the child attempt such a thing?” he demanded.

” You made her,” I retorted. ” You!”

” I! But I had no idea that she was so advanced in her riding.”

I realised later that I was on the verge of hysteria. I believed that Alvean might have done herself some terrible injury and I felt almost certain that a child of her temperament would never want to ride again. I believed I had been wrong in my methods. I should not have tried to overcome her fear of horses; I had tried to win my way into her affections by showing her the way to win those of her father.

I could not rid myself of a terrible sense of guilt, and I was desperately trying to. I was saying to myself. This is a house of tragedy. Who are you to meddle in the lives of these people? What are you trying to do? To change Alvean? To change her father? To discover the truth about Alice? What do you think you are? God?

But I wouldn’t blame myself entirely. I was looking for a scapegoat. I was saying to myself. He is to blame. If he had been different, none of this would have happened. I’m sure of that.

I had lost control of my feelings and on the rare occasions when people like myself do that, they usually do it more competely than those who are prone to hysterical outbursts.

” No,” I cried out, ” of course you had no idea that she was so advanced. How could you when you had never shown the slightest interest in the child? She was breaking her heart through your neglect. It was for that reason that she attempted this thing of which she was not capable.”

“My dear Miss Leigh,” he murmured.

“My dear Miss Leigh.” And he was looking at me in complete bewilderment.

I thought to myself. What do I care! I shall be dismissed, but in any case I have failed. I had hoped to do the impossible to bring this man out of his own selfishness to care a little for his lonely daughter. And what have I done made a complete mess of it and perhaps maimed the child for life. A fine one I was to complain of the conduct of others.

But I continued to blame him, and I no longer cared what I said.

” When I came here,” I went on, ” it did not take me long to understand the state of affairs. That poor motherless child was starved … Oh, I know she had her broth and her bread and butter at regular intervals. But there is another starvation besides that of the body. She was starved of the affection which she might expect from a parent and, as you see, she was ready to risk her life to win it.”

” Miss Leigh, please, I beg of you, do be calm, do be reasonable. Are you telling me that Alvean did that …”

But I would not let him speak. ” She did that for you. She thought it would please you. She has been practising for weeks.”

” I see,” he said. Then he look his handkerchief from his pocket and wiped my eyes. ” You do not realise it. Miss Leigh,” he went on almost tenderly, ” but there are tears on your cheeks.”

I took the handkerchief from him and angrily wiped my tears away.

” They are tears of anger,” I said.

” And of sorrow. Dear Miss Leigh, I think you care very much for Alvean.”

” She is a child,” I said, ” and it was my Job to care for her. God knows, there are few others to do it.”

” I see,” he answered, ” that I have been behaving in a very reprehensible manner.”

” How could you … if you had any feeling? Your own daughter! She lost her mother. Don’t you see that because of that she needed special care?”

Then he said a surprising thing: ” Miss Leigh, you came here to teach Alvean, but I think you have taught me a great deal too.”

I looked at him in amazement; I was holding his hand kerchief a few inches from my tear-stained face; and at that moment Celestine Nansellock came in.