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He’ll probably have a still bigger success in Hawkeston. He’s quite a man of means now.”

“Really!” said Ann, making a gallant effort to answer his smile. She had learned quite enough—too much. She wouldn’t talk of Rodney any more.

She made up her mind to say “good-by” to Waring on the balcony. She wouldn’t let him escort her back to the shop, and she would not promise to meet him again.

“You don’t get rid of me quite so easily, you know,” Waring warned her. “There’s no law to prevent my recommending my lady friends to buy their hats at your emporium, and coming in to advise them as to their selection, when I happen to be in Wairiri.”

“Of course there isn’t,” she answered. “The more the merrier. I always welcome business.”

“Are you really making a good thing out of it?”

“I should think so. I’ll be one of the leading trades-women of the town before I’ve finished.”

“You’ll be married long before that happens.”

Ann shook her head.

“No,” she answered soberly, “there’s no likelihood of that.”

“I can tell you the name of the man you are going to marry,” said Waring coolly.

But she refused to be led into any further discussion on the matter. She rose, and saying good-by, she thanked him for the tea, and left him.

Waring stayed for one night in Wairiri, before going through to Hawkeston for the polo tournament, at the end of the following week. He called to see Ann