or and to the mirror that reflected it, yet
she knew that Nicky had come in.

"That's the song you used to sing at bed-time when you were frightened,"
he said.

She was sitting now in the old hen-house that was Nicky's workshop,
watching him as he turned square bars of brass into round bars with his
lathe. She had plates of steel to polish, and pieces of wood to rub
smooth with glass-paper. There were sheets of brass and copper, and bars
and lumps of steel, and great poles and planks of timber reared up round
the walls of the workshop. The metal filings fell from Nicky's lathe
into sawdust that smelt deliciously.

The workshop was nicer than the old apple-tree house, because there were
always lots of things to do in it for Nicky.

"Nicky," she said suddenly, "do you believe in ghosts?"

"Well--" Nicky caught his bar as it fell from the lathe and examined it
critically.

"You remember when I was afraid of ghosts, and you used to come and sit
with me till I went to sleep?"

"Rather."

"Well--there _are_ ghosts. I saw one last night. It came into the room
just after I got into bed."

"You _can_ see them," Nicky said. "Ferdie's seen heaps. It runs in his
family. He told me."

"He never told _me_."

"Rather not. He was afraid you'd be frightened."

"Well, I wasn't frightened. Not the least little bit."

"I shall tell him that. He wanted most awfully to know whether you saw
them too."

"_Me_? But Nicky--it was Ferdie I saw. He stood by the door and looked
at me. Like he does, you know."

The next morning Frances had a letter of two lines from Veronica's
mother:

"Ferdie died last evening at half past eight.

"He wants you to keep Ronny.

"VERA."

It was not till years later that Veronica knew that "He wanted most
awfully to know whether you saw them too" meant "He wanted most awfully
to know whether you really were his daughter."

PART II

THE VORTEX

XI

Three years passed. It was the autumn of nineteen-ten. Anthony's house
was empty for the time being of all its children except Dorothea.

Michael was in the beginning of his last year at Cambridge. Nicholas was
in his second year. He had taken up mathematics and theoretical
mechanics. In the long vacation, when the others went into the country,
he stayed behind to work in the engineering sheds of the Morss Motor
Company. John was at Cheltenham. Veronica was in Dresden.

Dorothea had left Newnham a year ago,