Douglas and his wife were her dearest friends, and Lettice, her sweet god-daughter, ranked next to Cedric in her heart. With so many to love, how could life fail to satisfy her! "And it so short--so short," she would say to herself. "One sees so little of one's friends here; but one will have plenty of time to enjoy them in Paradise." Continuity of life--continuity of love, this was Dinah's simple creed, but it kept her young and happy. "Dinah has the secret of perpetual youth," Elizabeth would say to her friend Mrs. Godfrey; but she generally ended with a sigh, "If only I were like her!" CHAPTER XXII "TWO MAIDEN LADIES OF UNCERTAIN AGE" How poor a thing is man! Alas, 'tis true; I'd half forget it when I chanced on you! --SCHILLER. Thy clothes are all the soul thou hast. --BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. The day of the Templeton's garden fete was as bright and cloudless as the heart of man or woman could desire. Verity, who had dressed herself at an unconscionably early hour, sat at an upper window with Babs in her arms, watching brakes and carriages drive past, filled with gaily attired people. Malcolm had issued his sovereign mandate that they must not be amongst the earliest arrivals, and Verity panted with impatience long before she could induce her household tyrants to lay aside pipe and cigarette. Malcolm was not in a festive mood. He had spent his morning restlessly, pacing up and down the woodlands, with an unread book under his arm. He was secretly chafed and even a little hurt that neither of the sisters had needed his help. He had dropped more than one hint on the previous day, when some errand took him to the Wood House, and he found Elizabeth looking heated and tired, superintending the removal of some furniture. "You might make use of an idle man," he had said half-jestingly. "I assure you that I am a complete Jack-of-all-trades, and I don't mind 'a scrow,' as old Nurse Dawson calls it." But though Elizabeth smiled, she did not avail herself of this friendly offer; but it was Dinah who gave him the real explanation. "Oh, thank you, Mr. Herrick," she had returned gratefully; "we should have been so glad of your help, only David Carlyon and his father are doing all we want. Mr. Carlyon is so useful, and David spends all his spare time with us." "David"--in a pondering voice. And Dinah blushed as if she had been guilty of an indiscretion. "Oh, we only call him that in order to distinguish him from his father--the two Carlyons are so puzzling; but he is an old and a very dear friend, and at my age it does not matter," finished Dinah with her charming smile.