to, a
handkerchief, a dead bee, an old razor, a bit of gauze, some tow, a stick
of caustic, a reel of cotton, a needle, no thimble, two dock leaves, and
some sheets of yellowish paper. He separated from the rest the sixpence,
the dead bee, and what was edible. And in delighted silence the three
little Trysts gazed, till Biddy with the tip of one wet finger touched
the bee.

"Not good to eat, Biddy."

At those words, one after the other, cautiously, the three little Trysts
smiled. Finding that Tod smiled too, they broadened, and Billy burst
into chuckles. Then, clustering in the doorway, grasping the edibles and
the sixpence, and consulting with each other, they looked long after his
big figure passing down the road.

CHAPTER XII

Still later, that same morning, Derek and Sheila moved slowly up the
Mallorings' well-swept drive. Their lips were set, as though they had
spoken the last word before battle, and an old cock pheasant, running
into the bushes close by, rose with a whir and skimmed out toward his
covert, scared, perhaps, by something uncompromising in the footsteps of
those two.

Only when actually under the shelter of the porch, which some folk
thought enhanced the old Greek-temple effect of the Mallorings' house,
Derek broke through that taciturnity:

"What if they won't?"

"Wait and see; and don't lose your head, Derek." The man who stood there
when the door opened was tall, grave, wore his hair in powder, and waited
without speech.

"Will you ask Sir Gerald and Lady Malloring if Miss Freeland and Mr.
Derek Freeland could see them, please; and will you say the matter is
urgent?"

The man bowed, left them, and soon came back.

"My lady will see you, miss; Sir Gerald is not in. This way."

Past the statuary, flowers, and antlers of the hall, they traversed a
long, cool corridor, and through a white door entered a white room, not
very large, and very pretty. Two children got up as they came in and
flapped out past them like young partridges, and Lady Malloring rose from
her writing-table and came forward, holding out her hand. The two young
Freelands took it gravely. For all their hostility they could not
withstand the feeling that she would think them terrible young prigs if
they simply bowed. And they looked steadily at one with whom they had
never before been at quite such close quarters. Lady Malloring, who had
originally been the Honorable Mildred Killory, a daughter of Visco