"Oh, she'll soon solace herself with another husband," said Di, with a scornful smile. "Lady Bampford is the one I am sorry for. I should think her life is an hourly martyrdom with that foolish chatterbox of a husband. She turns from him so wearily sometimes. I should feel inclined to choke him if he belonged to me. Dear Rowena, I'm so glad you don't look shocked! Now tell me your opinion of Mr. Norris?" "I have only said half a dozen words to him. He's very Colonial; but he's really fond of Hector. He said very pathetically to me 'I should like to have a home of my own—one that belonged to my family, but we've only owned town jerry-built villas for generations.' He told me he had a superstition against buying an old house from anyone else. 'I know I should see strange spooks in it,' he said. 'One wouldn't mind spooks belonging to one's own people, but strange spooks might be up to any jinks!'" Di laughed. "We shall be a scratch pack in church to-morrow. I'm wondering whether Mr. Ross will be able to whip us all in!" But Di need not have wondered. Hector had a way of getting people to do as he wanted, and the next day there was not one absent guest in the little church, five miles away in the hills. "You're a splendid whipper-in," Di said to him at the church door. He nodded to her, and from that time the nickname stuck to him. There were shooting parties in the following week, and Di was out-of-doors all day. General Macdonald took his wife home at the end of the week, but the other guests remained on. Rowena had had several long talks with Di, and parted from her with real regret. Di promised to correspond with her. "I'm a tough subject," she said to her, laughing; "much tougher than our old friend, Mrs. Burke; but your words stick, and I'll have plenty of time to think them over when I get back to town." Husband and wife reached home one wild, stormy evening. The warmth and cosiness of their house when they came into it made Rowena look up at her husband and say: "Isn't it true that one's own fireside is always best? I was sorry for poor little Miss Ross going about that big house wrapped in her voluminous shawls. Hector ought to have central heating." "He is going to. At present his place is like a barn, but my house was very like his before you came into it. You women have a wonderful gift for making a true home atmosphere." He drew her to him for a moment and gave her a kiss, then held her out at arm's length from him, and said with smiling eyes: "I am criticizing my wife. Wondering about this particular glamour in her composition. Do you know, madam, that Miss Dunstan actually held a long conversation with me in the smoking-room this morning? It was when you were completing our packing, and she told me things that have been simmering in my brain ever since." "Tell me about them."