n.

"Promised? No, not a precise promise--but she was quite pleasant and
seemed to be open to argument--quite a nice young person."

"Ah! you have done nothing!" There was a note of relief in Clare's
exclamation. "Why not say so at once, Garrett, instead of beating
about the bush? There is an end of it. We have failed, Robin, both of
us; we are where we were before, and what to do next I really don't
know."

It was rather a comfort to drag Garrett into it as well. She was glad
that he had tried; it made her own failure less noticeable.

Robin looked at both of them, gloomily, from the fireplace. Aunt
Clare, handsome, aristocratic, perfectly well fitted to pour out tea in
any society, but useless, useless, useless when it came to the real
thing; Uncle Garrett and his eyeglass, trying to make the most of a
situation in which he had most obviously failed--no, they were no good
either of them, and three weeks ago they had seemed the ultimate
standard by which his own life was to be tested. How quickly one
learnt!

"Well, what is to be done?" he said desperately. "It's plain enough
that she means to stick to the things; and, after all, there can only
be one reason for her doing it--she means to use them. I can see no
way out of it at all--one must just stand up to it."

"We'll think, dear, we'll think," said Clare eagerly. "Ideas are sure
to come if we only wait."

"Wait! But we can't wait!" cried Robin. "She'll move at once.
Probably the letters are in the lawyer's hands already."

"Then there's nothing to be done," said Garrett comfortably, settling
back again into his book--he was, he flattered himself, a man of most
excellent practical sense.

"No, it really seems, Robin, as if we had better wait," said Clare.
"We must have patience. Perhaps after all she has taken no steps."

But Robin was angry. He had long ago forgotten his share in the
business; he had adopted so successfully the role of injured sufferer
that his own actions seemed to him almost meritorious. But he was very
angry with them. Here they were, in the face of a family crisis,
deliberately adopting a policy of _laissez-faire_; he had done his best
and had failed, but he was young and ignorant of the world (that at
least he now admitted), but they were old, experienced, wise--or, at
least, they had always seemed to him to stand for experience and
wisdom, and yet they could do nothing--nay, worse--they seemed to wish
to do nothi