'Oh! He is an old bachelor. What does he know? Our cousin comes from Scilly. So did we. It does very well to talk of coming from Scilly, as if it was something grand, but I have been looking into a book about it. Old families of Scilly, we say. Why, they have never been anything but farmers and smugglers. And our cousin, I hear, is actually a small tenant-farmer--a flower-farmer--a kind of market-gardener! She grows daffodils and jonquils and anemones and snowdrops, and sells them. Very likely the daffodils on our table have come from her farm. Perhaps she will tell us about the price they fetch a dozen. And she will inform us at dinner how she counts the stalks and makes out the bills.' 'Absurd! She is an heiress. Mr. Jagenal says----' 'An heiress? How can she be an heiress?' Philippa repeated, with scorn. 'She inherits the lease of a little flower-farm. The people of Scilly are all quite, quite poor. My book says so. Some years ago the Scilly folk were nearly starving.' 'Your book must be wrong, Philippa. Mr. Jagenal says that the girl has a respectable fortune. When a man of his experience says that, he means----' Here her voice dropped again. 'Well; the island heiress will go back, I dare say, to her inheritance.' At this point Mr. Jagenal himself was announced--elderly, precise, exact in appearance and in language. 'You have not yet seen your cousin?' he asked. 'No. She will be here immediately, I suppose.' 'Your cousin came to our house five years ago. My late partner received her. She brought a letter from a clergyman then at the Scilly Islands. She was sixteen, quite ignorant of the world, and a really interesting girl. She had inherited a very handsome fortune. My late partner found her tutors and guardians, and she has been travelling and learning. Now she has come to London again. She chooses to be her own mistress, and has taken a flat. And I have found a companion for her--widow of an artist--our young friend Alec Feilding knew about her--name of Elstree. I think she will do very well.' 'Alec knew her? He has never told me of any lady of that name.' Philippa looked a little astonished. Then the girl of whom they were talking, with the companion in question, appeared.