Neither Alistair nor his wife had any suspicion that their new residence was within the charitable rounds of the Duchess of Trent. The dwellers in Beers Cooperage were equally ignorant that their new neighbour was her Grace’s son. They had soon given up the notion that he was among them as a social or religious missionary, and now cherished the exciting belief that he was in hiding from the police, who would presently appear on the scene, and drag him off with all dramatic circumstance. Alistair had concealed his address from nobody; on the contrary, he had taken pains to transmit it to the editor of every directory in which his name was included. The ratification of his bankruptcy had left him with a pleasing sense of freedom, and the sale of Molly’s furniture had provided for present needs. When the Duchess returned to Colonsay House, her first thought was for Beers Cooperage. She dreaded a meeting with her daughter-in-law so much that she was tempted to relinquish her visits to the little yard. But a sense that it would be cowardly to make her poor friends suffer on this account co-operated with some human curiosity to overcome her repugnance. She decided to go to the Cooperage as usual, and take her chance of meeting its new inmates. Hero disappointed her friend by refusing to accompany her. She made it her excuse that she intended to call on Lady Alistair, and did not wish the compliment to be lessened by association with charitable visits. She had another reason which she did not tell the Duchess. She feared that Alistair’s mother was incapable of dealing tactfully with such a woman as Molly Finucane. Indeed, she had shown herself little able to deal with her own son. Hero was determined to be the friend of both, and in order to be so she saw that she must not let herself be identified with the Duchess. Caroline delayed so long that it was Miss Vanbrugh who first made Lady Alistair’s acquaintance. She drove to the Cooperage in her father’s carriage at the fashionable hour of the afternoon, walked up the yard without noticing its inmates, except by a nod in passing, and knocked at the bright green door. It was opened by Alistair himself, who could not restrain an exclamation of pleasure. “Is Lady Alistair at home?” Hero asked smilingly. “You have come to call on her? That is good of you! She is upstairs; I will fetch her down.” Hero detained him by a gesture, as she whispered swiftly: “Don’t tell her that it is good of me. Don’t praise me to her at all. And leave us together.” Alistair understood. He placed Hero in one of the Cromwellian armchairs, and went upstairs wearing a look of indifference. He found Molly seated on her bed, looking very fierce and flushed. Her ladyship had inspected the visitor from overhead through the window, and immediately prepared for battle. “Who is she?” she demanded. Alistair shrugged his shoulders with well-assumed carelessness. “It’s Miss Vanbrugh, the girl who wrote to you, you know.”