"I'm taking you at your word, for I know you're the real good sort and mean what you say. Will you have me on a visit now? I have to put in a fortnight with some cousins in Perthshire at the end of the month, and I'm fed up with town. I don't believe I shall ever stick a flat all the year round. It isn't good enough! I'm bored stiff with the pack of humanity round me. I want light and air and breathing space; and, oh, for a horse and a gallop through the fresh untainted air on the heath or moor! Does your good man keep horses? Or is he all for those smelly cars? Rowena, I must come. I think I shall go mad if I don't get out of town pretty soon. So send me a wire on receipt of this, and I'll leave my slang and most of my cigarettes behind, and will be on my best behaviour lest I shock your high-principled husband. Poor Mrs. Burke used to rail against him! In her jolly days, I mean. Poor dear, she wasn't much fun latterly, though she was wonderfully plucky in bearing her lot! I don't see much of Vi—one is at a disadvantage in a married sister's house. She does the high and mighty with me, as if I'm on a lower plane to her. And I can't cotton to Gregory—I never could—and he's too selfish to make a good husband—was a bachelor too long. So long." "Yours," "DI." Rowena consulted her husband. With a wry face he agreed to send a wire. "I'm trying to be sociable," he said, "and you must have your friends. I know her sort, and trust that you will not leave me to entertain her." "Indeed, indeed, I won't!" laughed Rowena. "But, Hugh dear, if you let her ride your cob, she'll want nothing better. Di off a horse is only half herself. And I'm truly sorry for her. She has lost such a lot, and seems to have no object in life." The wire was sent, and the next evening Di arrived. She was a handsome girl still, but she looked worn and weary, and Rowena saw that she was in a restless unhappy state of mind. She talked recklessly at dinner and showed her worst side to the General, who was wonderfully forbearing and courteous in his manner towards her. Bertha Holt looked at her in amazement; never had she in the course of her quiet life come across this type of woman. Di's horsey slang, her astounding statements, and her perfect indifference to the impression she was making upon those around her, startled and puzzled the young girl. When dinner was over the young people disappeared into the garden. Rowena walked her guest along the terrace and down a grassy path which led to a low wall overlooking the loch. Di promptly lit up her cigarette.