their master's back. He was the
schoolmaster--the spoilsport. They were all afraid of him. Even Polly.

But here came Polly herself to say: "Dinner, dear," in her kindest
tone. She also put her arm round his neck and hugged him. "Not cross
any more, Richard? I know we behaved disgracefully." Her touch put the
crown on her words. Mahony drew her to him and kissed her.

But the true origin of the unpleasantness, Zara, who in her ghoulish
delight at seeing Hempel grovel before her--thus Mahony worded
it--behaved more kittenishly than ever at table: Zara Mahony could not
so easily forgive; and for the remainder of her stay his manner to her
was so forbidding that she, too, froze; and to Polly's regret the old
bad relation between them came up anew.

But Zara was enjoying herself too well to cut her visit short on
Mahony's account. "Besides, poor thing," thought Polly, "she has really
nowhere to go." What she did do was to carry her head very high in her
brother-in-law's presence; to speak at him rather than to him; and in
private to insist to Polly on her powers of discernment. "You may say
what you like, my dear--I can see you have a VERY GREAT DEAL to put up
with!"

At last, however, the day of her departure broke, and she went off amid
a babble of farewells, of requests for remembrance, a fluttering of
pocket-handkerchiefs, the like of which Polly had never known; and to
himself Mahony breathed the hope that they had seen the last of Zara,
her fripperies and affectations. "Your sister will certainly fit better
into the conditions of English life."

Polly cried at the parting, which might be final; then blew her nose
and dried her eyes; for she had a busy day before her. Tilly Beamish
had been waiting with ill-concealed impatience for Zara to vacate the
spare room, and was to arrive that night.

Mahony was not at home to welcome the new-comer, nor could he be
present at high tea. When he returned, towards nine o'clock, he found
Polly with a very red face, and so full of fussy cares for her guest's
comfort--her natural kindliness distorted to caricature--that she had
not a word for him. One look at Miss Tilly explained everything, and
his respects duly paid he retired to the surgery, to indulge a smile at
Polly's expense. Here Polly soon joined him, Tilly, fatigued by her
journey and by her bounteous meal, having betaken herself early to bed.

"Ha, ha!" laughed Mahony, not without a certain mischievous
satisfaction