s
on the tip of my tongue to say it...."

Old Maisie's voice was getting faint as she said:--"Old Martha Prichard
... the name I go by now, Phoebe darling.... I took it to ... to keep a
memory...."

She was speaking in such a dying voice that Gwen struck in to put an end
to her exerting it. "I see what you mean," she said. "You mean you took
the name to bring back old times. Now be quiet and rest, dear! You are
talking more than is good for you. Indeed you are!"

Thereon Granny Marrable, though she had never felt clear about the
reason of this change of name, and now thought she saw enlightenment
ahead, followed in compliance with what she conceived to be Lady
Gwendolen's wishes. "Now you rest quiet, Maisie dearest, as her ladyship
says. What would Dr. Nash think of such a talking?"

Ruth might not be back till very late, and as she had not reappeared it
might be taken for granted she had stayed to sup with her daughter. Gwen
suggested rather timidly--for it was going outside her beat--that the
grandchild might have chosen its birthday. The Granny said, with a
curious certainty, that there was no likelihood of that for a day or two
yet, and went to summon Elizabeth from next door, to help with their own
supper. She herself was rather old and slow, she said, in matters of
house-service.

* * * * *

Gwen was not sorry to be left for a while to her own reflections before
the smouldering red log on the kitchen fire.

The great bulldog from the lobby without, as though his courtesy could
not tolerate such a distinguished guest being left alone, paid her a
visit in her hostess's absence. He showed his consciousness of her
identity by licking her hand at once. He would have smelt a stranger
carefully all round before bestowing such an honour. Gwen addressed a
few words to him of appreciation, and expressed her confidence in his
integrity. He seemed pleased, and discovered a suitable attitude at her
feet, after consideration of several. He looked up from his forepaws, on
which his chin rested, with an expression that might have meant anything
respectful, from civility to adoration. The cat, with her usual
hypocrisy, came outside her fender to profess that she had been on
Gwen's side all along, whatever the issue. Her method of explaining this
was the sort that trips you up--that curls round your ankles and purrs.
The cricket was too preoccupied to enter into the affairs of fussy,
uncontin