re. When we left it was quite early
Spring--and now all the trees are out! Sidney, what _will_ your firm say
to your having been away so long without letting them know where you
were?"

"I can't say, my love. I'm afraid they might make it a ground for a
dissolution of partnership--unless I can give them a satisfactory
explanation of my absence."

"The difficulty will be to find one!" said his wife. "As for you,
Clarence, they will be too glad to see you back again at the Insurance
Office to ask any questions."

"I dare say they would, Mater, only--it didn't seem worth mentioning
before--but, as a matter of fact, I--er--resigned the day we left."

"Then it seems," said Mrs. Wibberley-Stimpson bitterly, "we have been
sent back here to find ourselves in comparative poverty! I hope and
trust"--she felt furtively in her bead handbag before continuing more
cheerfully--"that we shall be able to struggle through somehow."

She knew now that they would not be without resources. She could feel
them through the handkerchief in which they had been wrapped--two pieces
which she had had the presence of mind to pick up from the Halma board
as she passed through Edna's and Ruby's chamber the evening before. One
was carved from a ruby, the other from a diamond, and each of them was
worth a small fortune. Her one regret now was that she had not pocketed
several more while she was about it. But, although she would have been
perfectly within her rights in doing so--for were they not her own
property?--she had thought at the time that it would be risky to take
any number that could be noticed. There was always the chance that Miss
Heritage might count them!

However, she said nothing about this to her family just then; it would
be a pleasant surprise for them later on.

"But," she continued, "I _do_ think it might have occurred to Miss
Heritage--I can't and won't call her by any other name--that, as she was
known to be in my employment when we left 'Inglegarth,' our returning
without her may expose us to very unpleasant remarks. People may think
I've discharged her--left her stranded in foreign parts--or I don't know
what!"

"That is what she _calculated_ on, no doubt!" said Edna.

"Oh, stop it, Edna!" said her brother, "you ought to know her better
than that!"

"Oh, of course she's an angel--in _your_ estimation! But she could have
saved mother from being misunderstood if she'd wanted to--and since she
hasn't--well, I'll leave