"You will take care of her, won’t you?" concluded the solicitous Dicky. "Surely!" replied Sylvia, in her grandest manner. "This way, Miss Welwyn." She swept across the hall and up the staircase, followed by the small, moist, and mysterious figure of the newcomer. At the foot of the stair Tilly halted and looked back. Dicky, who had been following her with his eyes, was at her side in a moment. "What is it?" he asked in a low voice. The girl laid an appealing hand on his arm. "Don’t leave me, Dicky!" she whispered. The Freak replied by tucking her arm under his own and propelling her vigorously up to the turn of the stair. "Don’t be a little juggins," he said affectionately. "_I_ can’t come and change your shoes and stockings for you, can I?" Miss Welwyn, acquiescing in this eminently correct view of the matter, smiled submissively. "All right," she said. "Au revoir!" She ran lightly upstairs after the disappearing Sylvia, turning to wave her hand to Dicky before she disappeared. Dicky, who had waited below for that purpose, acknowledged the salute, and turned to find Mrs. Carmyle at his elbow. "Dicky," announced that small Samaritan, "I am going up, too. Sylvia might bite your ewe lamb." The Freak smiled gratefully. "The Lady and the Tiger--eh?" he said. "Connie, you are a brick! Be tender with her, won’t you?" he added gently. "She’s scared to death at present, and no wonder!" Connie Carmyle, with a reassuring pat upon the anxious young man’s arm, turned and sped upstairs. Dicky, hands in pockets and head in air, strolled happily back into the circle of firelight and took up his stand upon the hearthrug. Lady Adela, looking like a large volcano in the very last stages of self-suppression, sat simmering over the teacups. The heir of the Mainwarings addressed his parents affectionately. "Well, dear old things," he enquired, "how are we? So sorry to be late for tea, but it was an eventful and perilous journey." The long-overdue eruption came at last. "Dick," demanded Lady Adela explosively, "why have you brought that young person here?" "Young per--oh, Tilly?" Dicky smiled ecstatically to himself at the very sound of Miss Welwyn’s name. "Tilly? Well, I don’t see what else I could have done with her, Mummie dear. I could n’t leave her at the station, could I? But I must tell you about our adventures. First of all we lost Percy." "Dick," repeated Lady Adela, "_who--is--_?" "Who is Percy?" asked Dicky readily. "I forgot; I have n’t told you about Percy. He is her brother. A most amazing fellow: knows everything. Can explain to you in two minutes all the things you have failed to understand for years. Teach you something you did n’t know, I should n’t wonder, Mother. He is going to introduce me to some of his friends, and put me up for his club." "What club, my boy?" interposed Mr. Mainwaring, snatching at this gleam of light in the general murkiness.