hat
pleased her mother. They went off accordingly when the early November
gales were blowing, not on any very original plan, to places where a
great many people go, to the Riviera, where the roses were still blowing
with a sort of soft patience which was like Chatty. And thus strangely
out of nature, without any habitual cold, or frost, or rain, or anything
like what they were used to, that winter which had begun with such very
different intentions glided quietly away. Of course they met people
now and then who knew their story, but there were also many who did
not know: ladies from the country, such as abound on the Riviera, who
fortunately did not think a knowledge of London gossip essential to
salvation, and who thought Miss Warrender must be delicate, her colour
changed so from white to red. But as it is a sort of duty to be delicate
on the Riviera and robust persons are looked down upon, they did very
well, and the days, so monotonous, so bright, with so little in them,
glided harmlessly away. Dick wrote not very often, but yet now and then,
which was a thing Minnie had protested against, but then, mamma, Mrs.
Eustace Thynne said, _had_ always "her own ways of thinking," and if she
permitted it, what could any one say?

CHAPTER XLVI.

Mrs. Warrender and her daughter came home in the early summer, having
lingered longer than they intended in the South. They had lingered for
one thing, because a long and strange interruption had occurred in the
letters from America. Dick had made them aware of his arrival there, and
of the beginning of his necessary business, into the details of which
naturally he did not enter. He had told them of his long journey, which
was not then so rapid as now, but meant long travelling in primitive
ways by waggons and on horseback, and also that he had found greater
delays and more trouble than he expected. In the spring he was still
lingering, investigating matters which he did not explain, but which
he said might very likely facilitate what he had to do and make the
conclusion more fortunate than he had anticipated. And then there came
a pause. They waited, expecting the usual communication, but it did
not come; they waited longer, thinking it might have been delayed by
accident, and finally returned home with hearts heavier than those with
which they went away. Theo came to meet them at the station, when they
arrived in London. He was there with his wife in the beginning of the
s