ring she wore--but I
cannot recall the colour of her eyes."

"Oh, well, that oversight will soon be repaired!"

"Aunt Flora was fond of gaiety and theatres; we lived in Chelsea, and
as our small house could hardly hold her big boxes and we had no
telephone, she went to the Carlton, where she was more in the middle of
things, and could entertain her friends from India and Burma--but she
came to see us two or three times a week."

"And where was her lord and master?"

"In Germany; I have never seen him."

"How did your aunt come across him?"

"In Hong Kong, of all places! She was married at eighteen to a young
officer; they ran away, and I believe grandpa never forgave her. He
was a General, a strict old martinet, and she was his favourite
daughter. After they had been married a couple of years, Aunt Flora's
husband was killed in an accident and she was left rather badly off.
People out there were very kind to her. She had been hurt in the
accident and was laid up for months. Then this rich German asked her
to marry him, and as she was reluctant to return home and face grandpa,
she said 'Yes.' But perhaps it was love match number two."

"Yes, perhaps it was."

"That all happened twenty years ago, and since then Aunt Flora has made
her home in the East--China, the Straits Settlements and Burma. You
see, her friends and her interests are mostly out there. She and
mother always write to one another; we do her commissions in London,
and she sends us Burmese silks and umbrellas and curry stuff; but we
were immensely surprised when, without any little hints or
preparations, Uncle Karl wrote and invited me to pay them a long
visit--and so here I am! I do hope I shan't be a fish out of water.
I've never been accustomed to living with wealthy people, and, I'm told
that Uncle Karl is immensely rich."

"You need not consider that a drawback. It is better than being
immensely poor--for instance, like myself."

"You don't look poor."

She smiled as she glanced at his well-cut suit and admirable brown
shoes.

"I'm not exactly a whining beggar, selling boot laces and matches, but
I am uncommonly glad to have got this job, which brings me in about
four hundred a year. In London I was a clerk at less than half, and
here is my chance to see the world--and I'm bound to make the most of
it."

"Mrs. Milward said you were to have gone into the Army."

"Yes, but if you can't get what you like, you must like what yo