ittle Noel, the
youngest of the family, aged twelve--had turned the corner and were
progressing towards convalescence. Over the latter she still had qualms
of uneasiness, but the elder boy was rapidly picking up his strength and
giving more trouble than he had ever given before in the process.

By inexorable decree Chris was kept away from the two over whom
Mademoiselle, aided by a convent nurse, still watched with unremitting
care; and it did seem a little hard in the opinion of the harassed
Frenchwoman that her one sound charge could not be trusted to conduct
herself with circumspection during her days of enforced solitude. Chris
Wyndham, however, had been a tomboy all her life, and she could scarcely
be expected to reform at such a juncture. She was not accustomed to
solitude, and her restless spirit chafed after distraction.

The conventions had never troubled her. Brought up as she had been with
three unruly boys, running wild with them during the whole of her
childhood, it was scarcely to be wondered at if her outlook on life was
more that of a boy than a girl. She had been in Mademoiselle Gautier's
charge during the past three years, but somehow that had not sobered her
very materially. She was spoilt by all except her aunt, who was wont to
remark with some acidity that if she didn't come to grief one way or
another, this would probably continue to be the case for the term of her
natural life. But it was quite plain that Aunt Philippa expected her to
come to grief. Girls like Chris, unless they married out of the
schoolroom, usually played with fire until they burnt their fingers. The
fact of the matter was Chris was far too attractive, and though as yet
sublimely unconscious of the fact, Aunt Philippa knew that sooner or
later it was bound to dawn upon her. She did not relish the prospect of
steering this giddy little barque through the shoals and quicksands of
society, being shrewdly suspicious that the task might well prove too
much for her. For with all her sweetness, Chris was undeniably wilful, a
princess who expected to have her own way; and Aunt Philippa had a
daughter of her own, Chris's senior by three years, as well as a son in
the Guards, to consider.

No, she did not approve of Chris, or indeed of any of the family,
including her own brother, who was its head. She had not approved of his
gay young wife, Irish and volatile, who had died at the birth of little
Noel. She doubted the stability of each