startled, ma'am, if you see the very spit of Dandy in this 'ere
village! As me and your new lad was cleaning out the stable-yard this
morning, a young gentleman came in with a dog as was 'is exact image.
After a bit o'course, I remembered as what we'd sent one of Juno's and
Dandy's pups to a place called Beechfield this time last year--'tis that
pup grown into a dog without a doubt!"

It was certainly a bit of rank bad luck that there should be here, in
Beechfield, a dog which, whenever she saw it, brought the image of her
dead husband so vividly before her.

She had just settled herself down, and was turning over the leaves of one
of the many picture papers which Tremaine had bought for her on their
jolly little journey on the day of her arrival at The Trellis House, when
there came a ring at the door.

Who could it be coming so late--close to seven o'clock? Enid Crofton got
up, feeling vaguely disturbed.

The new maid brought in a reply-paid telegram, and Mrs. Crofton tore
open the orange envelope with just a faint premonition that something
disagreeable was going to happen:--"May I come and stay with you for the
week-end? Have just arrived in England. Alice Crofton."

Thank Heaven she had been wrong as to her premonition! This portended
nothing disagreeable--only something unexpected. The sender of this
telegram was the kind, opulent sister-in-law whom she always thought of
as "Miss Crofton."

Going over to her toy writing-table, she quickly wrote on the reply-paid
form:--"Miss Crofton, Buck's Hotel, Dover Street. Yes, delighted. Do come
to-morrow morning. Excellent eleven o'clock train from Waterloo.--Enid."

As she settled herself by the fire she told herself that a visit from
Miss Crofton might be quite a good thing--so far as Beechfield was
concerned. Her associations with her husband's sister were wholly
pleasant. For one thing, Alice Crofton was well off, and Enid
instinctively respected, and felt interested in, any possessor of money.
What a pity it was that Colonel Crofton had not had a fairy godmother!
His only sister had been left L3,000 a year by a godmother, and she lived
the agreeable life so many Englishwomen of her type and class live on the
Continent. While her real home was in Florence, she often travelled, and
during the War she had settled down in Paris, giving many hours of each
day to one of the British hospitals there.

The young widow's mind flew back to her one meeting with Alice Crof