ood
on the threshold hesitatingly, then she spoke.

"May I come in?"

June Mason looked up with an exaggerated start; she was a picturesque
figure at that moment in a big white overall, and with a scarf of her
favourite mauve tied over her dark head.

She held a little phial in either hand, and there was a delicious
faint smell of rose perfume in the room.

"You!" she said. "Gracious! I thought you were dead and buried long
enough ago. Oh yes, come in.... You don't mind me going on with my
work, do you? I'm up to my eyes in it.... Sit down."

But Esther stood where she was, the eagerness died out of her pretty
face.

"I won't stay if you're busy," she said. "I'll come another time,
but----" she hesitated. Across the room the eyes of the two girls met,
and June Mason promptly put down the two little phials.

"Come in and apologise, and so will I," she said heartily. "There!"
She reached up--Esther was taller than she--and gave the younger girl
a sounding kiss. "There! I don't often kiss people, so you can
consider yourself flattered." She dragged forward a chair and pushed
Esther into it. "Now, what do you want, and where's that Charlie?
You've no idea how I've missed him. No--you stay there, and I'll go
and fetch him up."

She darted off, and returned a moment later with Charlie in her arms.
There were yards of mauve ribbon lying on the table and she cut off a
length and tied it in a bow round his neck; then she kissed his head
and dropped him on to his cushion. "There! Now, we're quite at home
again," she said. "And now, fire away and tell me why you're here."

She packed all the dishes and boxes on to a tray, put them out of
sight behind a screen and came back to the fire.

"Do you like this perfume? It's something new! I'm trying to blend it
with white rose. Isn't it gorgeous?"

"Beautiful!" said Esther. She consented to have her chin dabbed. "What
are you making now?" she asked.

Miss Mason chuckled.

"Oh, I'm only experimising, as Micky calls it," she said lightly. "We
don't want to talk shop. You've got some news; I can see by your face
that you have."

Esther laughed and flushed.

"Oh, I have," she said tremulously. "Such wonderful news."

"Humph!" said June drily. "From the young man, of course? Well, is he
on his way home, and have you got to get a wedding dress in the next
five minutes or something?"

"Oh no, it isn't anything like that," said Esther. There was a shade
of regret in her