himself never told.

Barbara, who, flitting about the house on domestic duty, had caught
sight of him through a window, came out to greet him.

"Isn't it glorious to have her back?" he cried, waving his great hand
towards Doria. "And looking so bonny. Nothing like the South. The
sunshine gets into your blood. By Jove! what a difference, eh? Remember
when we started for Nice?"

He stood, legs apart and hands on hips, looking down on her with as much
pride as if he had wrought the miracle himself.

"Get some more chairs, dear," said Barbara.

By good fortune seeing one of the gardeners in the near distance, I
hailed him and shouted the necessary orders. That is the one
disadvantage of summer: during the whole of that otherwise happy season,
Barbara expects me to be something between a scene-shifter and a
Furniture Removing Van.

The chairs were fetched from a far-off summer house and we settled down.
Jaffery lit his pipe, smiled at Doria, and met a very wistful look. He
held her eyes for a space, and laid his great hand very gently on hers.

"I know what you're thinking of," he said, with an arresting tenderness
in his deep voice. "You won't have to wait much longer."

"Is it at the printer's?"

"It's printed."

Barbara and I gave each a little start--we looked at Jaffery, who was
taking no notice of us, and then questioningly at each other. What on
earth did the man mean?

"From to-morrow onwards, till publication, the press will be flooded
with paragraphs about Adrian Boldero's new book. I fixed it up with
Wittekind, as a sort of welcome home to you."

"That was very kind, Jaffery," said Doria; "but was it necessary? I
mean, couldn't Wittekind have done it before?"

"It was necessary in a way," said Jaffery. "We wanted you to pass the
proofs."

Doria smiled proudly. "Pass Adrian's proofs? I? I wouldn't presume to do
such a thing."

"Well, here they are, anyway," said Jaffery.

And to the bewilderment of Barbara and myself, he snapped open the hasps
of his suit-case and drew out a great thick clump of galley-proofs
fastened by a clip at the left hand top corner, which he deposited on
Doria's lap. She closed her eyes and her eyelids fluttered as she
fingered the precious thing. For a moment we thought she was going to
faint. There was breathless silence. Even Susan, who had been left out
in the cold, let the black kitten leap from her knee, and aware that
something out of the ordinary was happening, f