e man I can keep quiet
too. We ought to have sent John to meet him. They'd have been happy
enough together."

"You know," Helen said sympathetically, "I don't suppose he heard half
you said or was thinking about you at all."

Rupert laughed delightedly and put his arm through hers as he picked up
the bag.

"Come in. No doubt you're right."

"I believe he's really afraid of us," she added. "I should be."

As they entered the hall, they saw Miriam floating down the stairs. One
hand on the rail kept time with her descent; her black dress, of airy
make, fluffed from stair to stair; the white neck holding her little
head was as luminous as the pearls she wanted. She paused on one foot
with the other pointed.

"Where is he?" she whispered.

"Just coming out of the drawing-room," Rupert answered quickly,
encouraging her. "Stay like that. Chin a little higher. Yes. You're like
Beatrix Esmond coming down the stairs. Excellent!"

A touch from Helen silenced him as Mildred Caniper and her brother
turned the corner of the passage. They both stood still at the sight of
this dark-clad vision which rested immobile for an instant before it
smiled brilliantly and finished the flight.

"This is Miriam," Mildred Caniper said in hard tones.

Miriam cast a quick, wavering glance at her and returned to meet the
gaze of Uncle Alfred, who had not taken her hand. At last, seeing it
outstretched, he took it limply.

"Ah--Miriam," he said, with a queer kind of cough.

"She's knocked him all of a heap," Rupert told himself vulgarly as he
carried the bag upstairs, and once more he wished he knew what his
mother had been like.

CHAPTER VI

At supper, Uncle Alfred was monosyllabic, and the Canipers, realizing
that he was much shyer than themselves, became hospitable. Notya made
the droll remarks of which she was sometimes capable, and Miriam showed
off without fear of a rebuke. It was a comely party, and Mrs. Samson
breathed her heavy pleasure in it as she removed the plates. When the
meal was over and Uncle Alfred was smoking placidly in the drawing-room,
Helen wandered out to the garden gate. There she found John biting an
empty pipe.

After their fashion, they kept silence for a time before Helen said,
"Would it matter if I went for a walk?"

"I was thinking of having one myself."

"He won't miss you and me," she said. "May I come with you, or were you
going to Brent Farm?"

"I'm not going there. Come on."

The w