their bachelorhood as long as Roger enjoy being relegated
to the position of dowager. They have reigned too long to relish
abdication.

As Nan replied conventionally to Lady Gertrude's greeting, some such
thoughts as these flashed fugitively through her mind, and with them
came a rather tender, girlish determination, to make the transition as
easy as possible to the elder woman when the time came for it. The
situation made a quick appeal to her eager sympathies. She could
imagine so exactly how she herself would detest it if she were in the
other woman's position. Somewhat absorbed in this line of thought, she
followed her hostess into a stiff and formal-looking drawing-room which
conveyed the same sense of frigidity as Lady Gertrude's welcome.

There are some rooms you seem to know and love almost the moment you
enter them, while with others you feel that you will never get on terms
of friendliness. Nan suddenly longed for the dear, comfortable
intimacy of the panelled hall at Mallow, with its masses of freshly-cut
flowers making a riot of colour against the dark oak background, its
Persian rugs dimmed to a mellow richness by the passage of time, and
the sweet, "homey" atmosphere of it all.

Behind her back she made a desperate little gesture to Roger that he
should follow her, but he shook his head laughingly and went off in
another direction, thinking in his unsubtle mind that this was just the
occasion for his mother and his future wife to get well acquainted.

He felt sure that Nan's charm would soon overcome the various
objections which Lady Gertrude had raised to the engagement when he had
first confided his news to her. She had not minced matters.

"But, my dear Roger, from all I've heard, Nan Davenant is a most
unsuitable woman to be your wife. For one thing, she is, I believe, a
professional pianist." The thin lips seemed to grow still thinner as
they propounded the indictment.

Most people, nowadays, would have laughed outright, but Roger, being
altogether out of touch with the modern attitude towards such matters,
regarded his mother's objection as quite a normal and reasonable one.
It must be overcome in this particular instance, that was all.

"But, of course, Nan will give up everything of that kind when she's my
wife," he asserted confidently. And quite believed it, since he had a
touching faith in the idea that a woman can be "moulded" by her husband.

"Roger has rather taken me by sur