t with Trenby?"
asked Ralph moodily.

"She won't. I think she would have done if--if--for Peter's sake. But
not otherwise. She's got some sort of fixed notion that it wouldn't be
playing fair." Penelope paused, then added wretchedly: "I feel as if
our happiness had been bought at her expense!"

"Ours?" Completely mystified, Ralph looked across at her inquiringly.

"Yes, ours." And she proceeded to fill in the gaps, explaining how,
when she had refused to marry him, down at Mallow the previous summer,
it was Nan who had brought about his recall from London.

"I asked her if she intended to marry Roger, anyway--whether it
affected my marriage or not," she said. "And she told me that she
should marry him 'in any case.' But now, I believe it was just a
splendid lie to make me happy."

"It's done that, hasn't it?" asked Ralph, smiling a little.

Penelope's eyes shone softly.

"You know," she answered. "But--Nan has paid for it."

The telephone hell buzzed suddenly into the middle of the conversation
and Penelope flew to answer it. When she came back her face held a
look of mingled apprehension and relief.

"Who rang up?" asked Ralph.

"It was Kitty. She's back in town. I've told her Nan is here, and
she's coming round at once. She said she'd got some bad news for her,
but I think it'll have to be kept from her. She isn't fit to stand
anything more just now."

Ralph pulled out his watch.

"I'm afraid I can't stay to see Kitty," he said. "I've that oratorio
rehearsal fixed for half-past ten."

"Then, my dear, you'd better get off at once," answered Penelope with
her usual common sense. "You can't do any good here, and it's quite
certain you'll upset things there if you're late."

So that when Kitty arrived, a few minutes later, it was Penelope alone
who received her. She was looking very blooming after her sojourn in
the south of France.

"I've left Barry behind at Cannes," she announced. "The little green
tables have such a violent attraction for him, and he's just evolved a
new and infallible system which he wants to try. Funnily enough, I had
a craving for home. I can't think why--just in the middle of the
season there! But I'm glad, now, that I came." Her small, piquant
face shadowed suddenly. "I've bad news," she began abruptly, after a
pause. Penelope checked her.

"Hear mine first," she said quickly. And launched into an account of
the happenings of the last three days--Nan'