there, to secure new clothes for himself and Gipsy,
and to gain time to make fresh plans for the future. Though he had
fortunately been able to bring a certain sum of money away with him, all
their other possessions had gone down with the wrecked vessel, and it
was this loss which he and Gipsy were discussing as they drank their
morning tea.

"It was distinctly awkward to be left with nothing in the world but a
nightdress that I could call my own!" laughed Gipsy. "Wasn't it funny on
the _Alexia_? People were ever so kind in lending me things, but they
didn't fit. Mrs. Hales' skirt swept the deck, and Mrs. Campbell's jacket
was miles too big for me. I must have looked an elegant object when we
reached the landing stage! I don't wonder you bundled me into a cab in a
hurry, and drove straight off to an hotel. Yes, it's decidedly
unpleasant to lose one's clothes."

"If it were only clothes we'd lost, Gipsy, I shouldn't mind, but it's a
far more serious affair than that. All my valuable papers are gone,
child! You don't realize yet what that means. It makes such an enormous
difference to my affairs that for the next few years it may entirely
alter the course of my life."

"What do you mean, Dad?" asked Gipsy quickly, for her father's tone was
grave.

"What I say. The loss of those papers will necessitate a complete change
of all my plans. Instead of our going on to America, I shall be obliged
to return to South Africa at once."

"More voyaging! All right, Dad; I'm game for another wreck, if you are!
It'll seem rather funny to go back to where we've just come from, won't
it?"

Mr. Latimer was silent for a moment or two.

"Gipsy!" he said at last, "I've got to break the news to you somehow.
I've decided not to take you back with me to the Cape. I want to go
up-country, into some rather wild places, places where you couldn't
possibly come to camp. You'd be far best at school here in England."

"Dad! Dad! You're never going to leave me behind!"

"Now be sensible, Gipsy! Remember all I've lost. Your passage would be a
quite unnecessary expense; schools are better, too, over here, and you'd
have more advantages in the way of education than in South Africa. It
can't be helped, and we must both try to make the best of it. I'll not
be gone long, I promise you that. Then I'll come back to England again
and fetch you. For goodness' sake don't make a scene!"

Gipsy blinked hard, and with a supreme effort contrived to master