. 'You simply must spare me an afternoon, Mrs.
Duff-Whalley,' she said to me the other day, and I rang her up and said
we would come to-day. Life is really such a rush. And we are going
abroad in February and March. We must have some sunshine. Not that we
need it for our health, for we're both as strong as ponies. I haven't
been a day in bed for years, and Muriel the same, I'm thankful to say.
We've never had to waste money on doctors. And the War kept us so cooped
up, it's really pleasant to feel we can get about again. I thought on
our way south we would make a tour of the battlefields. I think one owes
it to the men who fought for us to go and visit their graves--poor
fellows! I saw Mrs. Macdonald--you go to their church, don't you?--at a
meeting yesterday, and I said if she would give me particulars I'd try
and see her boy's grave. They won't be able to go themselves, poor
souls, and I thought it would be a certain consolation to them to know
that a friend had gone. I must say, I think she might have shown more
gratitude. She was really quite off-hand. I think ministers' wives have
often bad manners; they deal so much with the working classes...."

Jean thought of a saying she had read of Dr. Johnson's: "He talked to me
at the Club one day concerning Catiline's conspiracy--so I withdrew my
attention and thought about Tom Thumb." When she came back to Mrs.
Duff-Whalley that lady was saying:

"Did you say, Jean, that Miss Reston is coming back to Priorsford soon?"

"Yes, any day."

"Fancy! And her brother too?"

Jean said she thought not: Lord Bidborough was going to London.

"Ah! then we shall see him there. I don't know when I met anyone with
whom I felt so instantly at home. He has such easy manners. It really is
a pleasure to meet a gentleman. I do wish my boy Gordon had seen more of
him. I'm sure they would have been friends. So good for a boy, you know,
to have a man of the world to go about with. Well, good-bye, Jean. You
really look very washed out. What you really need is a thorough holiday
and change of scene. Why, you haven't been away for years. Two months in
London would do wonders for you--"

The handle of the door turned and a voice said, "May I come in?" and
without waiting for permission Pamela Reston walked in, bare-headed,
wrapped in a cloak, and with her embroidery-frame under her arm, as she
had come many times to The Rigs during her stay at Hillview.

When Jean heard the voice it seemed t