y instead of me,
and the set would be all right."

"Oh, Hilary plays a rotten game!" said Jack, with true brotherly
frankness. "She can't play for nuts, and she talks all the time, and
won't run, and loses her temper."

"Hilary would be pleased if she heard you," remarked Maud lazily, as she
rose and strolled across to the fireplace.

"Oh, I hear, and I don't care two straws," called her sister from the
terrace. But her face, which was as black as thunder, looked as if she
did care nevertheless.

"Catch me wasting a whole day playing tennis," said Geoffrey. "I'm as
keen on a game as any one in the afternoon, but I am not going to be
glued to one little patch of grass all day."

"Of course not," put in Edward; "your favourite form of amusement we all
know nowadays, is to lie flat on your back on a dusty road tinkering at
your old motor-bike."

"And yours, apparently, to try and be funny at the expense of your elders
and betters," retorted Geoffrey. "Say much more, young man, and I'll take
you out in the trailer."

"Oh, but I wish you would, Geoffrey."

"Not much. The mater says she can't spare any of us yet, and certainly
not the "Hope of His Side." So trot away to your Latin essays, my son,
and don't waste time in idling like the rest of us."

"As a matter of fact, I'm going down to the cricket-ground with Tommy to
practice at the nets a bit with the professional," said Edward, nettled
at the imputation that he was going to spend the morning indoors. He was
not vain of his brains, but he was of his cricket, and though wild horses
would not have dragged from him the confession that he read Greek for
pleasure long after he ought to have been asleep, he would brag of his
batting averages to any one who would listen.

At that moment a maid entered the room and approached Margaret.

"If you please, Miss," she said, "the mistress says, will you wait for
her in the morning-room. She will be down in a moment, and wishes to
speak to you before you go out."

Margaret jumped up at once, glad of an excuse to leave the room, for
though she had finished her breakfast long before any of the others, she
had been too shy to rise and go away. Besides, she had not the least idea
where she ought to go, or what she ought to do.

"No need for you to hurry, Miss Carson," Maud called after her. "Mother's
minutes generally mean hours."

And in that Maud proved to have been right, for an hour and a quarter
passed before Mrs. Da