I am sure you are very busy--even more so than
usual, my dear Mary."

She made her stately adieu and swept away.

After her departure Molly bore the teacups to the kitchen and washed them
with less than her usual cheery rapidity. And when the day's work was
done she sat for a long while in her icy bedroom, with the moonlight
flooding all about her, thinking, thinking deeply.

* * * * *

It was the eve of Phyllis's wedding-day, and Molly was hard at work in
the kitchen. The children were all at home, but she had resolutely
turned every one out of this, her own particular domain, that she might
complete her gigantic task of preparation undisturbed. The whole
household were in a state of seething excitement. There were guests in
the house as well, and every room but the kitchen seemed crowded to its
utmost capacity. Molly was busier than she had ever been in her life, and
the whirl of work had nearly swept away even her serenity. She was very
tired, too, though she was scarcely conscious of it. Her hands went from
one task to another with almost mechanical skill.

She was bending over the stove, stirring a delicacy that required her
minute attention when there came a knock on the kitchen door.

She did not even turn her head as she responded to it. "Go away!" she
called. "I can't talk to anyone."

There was a pause--a speculative pause--during which Molly bent lower
over her saucepan and concluded that the intruder had departed.

Then she became suddenly aware that the door had opened quietly and
someone had entered. She could not turn her head at the moment.

"Oh, do go away!" she said. "I haven't a second to spare; and if this
goes wrong I shall be hours longer."

The kitchen door closed promptly and obligingly, and Molly, with a little
sigh of relief, concentrated her full attention once more upon the matter
in hand.

The last critical phase of the operation arrived, and she lifted the
saucepan from the fire and turned round with it to the table.

In that instant she saw that which so disturbed her equanimity that she
nearly dropped saucepan and contents upon the kitchen floor.

Earl Wyverton was standing with his back against the door, watching her
with eyes that shone quizzically under the meeting brows.

He came forward instantly, and actually took the saucepan out of her
hands.

"Let me," he said.

Molly let him, being for the moment powerless to do otherwise.

"No