"Sometimes," said Mrs. Arbuthnot slowly, "I think that year of solitude in the Highlands was bad for you, Rowena. You ought to love gadding round at your age." "My age, madam, is past that of giddy youth!" And then Rowena quitted the room, singing as she went: "I have a smiling face, she said I have a gist for all I meet, I have a garland for my head, And all its flowers are sweet—" CHAPTER II A NEW FRIEND "Is not making others happy the best happiness?" Amiel. "MY dear Geraldine, what is the matter? Your face is a yard long. Have you had bad news?" Mrs. Arbuthnot looked up from her letters and sighed. She and Rowena were at breakfast. It was a lovely morning in June. The windows were open, a sweet brier bush outside was scenting the room with its fragrance. "Madge is going to be married almost immediately." "Three cheers for Madge! If I had a sister, and a sister who has been engaged for five years, I should be overjoyed at the event." "Oh, I am glad for her sake, of course; but I have had four sheets from her showing me how impossible it is for mother to live alone, and imploring me to take the children and make Whitecroft my home." "A most sensible arrangement. It is a roomy old house, and nearer town than this is. You will be very happy there, my dear!" "I like a house of my own. I have always had it." "Yes, but your mother is a dear, gentle, old lady. Madge always ran the house, and you can do the same." Geraldine sighed again. "I hate changes, and Madge is going to be married in a fortnight and going straight out to the Cape with Frank, and she wants me to pack up my things and go to mother the end of this month." "Sir Arthur will let you off the rent of this, and nowadays he will have no trouble in getting another tenant. I would take it on myself if I had enough money." "But you will be with us, of course." Mrs. Arbuthnot raised a startled face to her sister-in-law. Rowena swung herself up on the low window-ledge, and sat there with her hands in her pockets, and her feet swinging to and fro. She whistled softly to herself, but did not speak for a minute, and Mrs. Arbuthnot repeated her words: "You will come with us? I am not going to part with you." "My dear Geraldine, leave me out of the question. Your first thought is your mother, and being what she is, and having no other children to look after her, I consider it is your bounden duty to go to her. Make up your mind to it. Whitecroft is a sweet home, and it is your mother's own, and too big for her to live in alone. That point is quite clear, and now when is the wedding, and what are you going to wear?" The question of clothes brought a smile to Mrs. Arbuthnot's lips. She began to see sunshine again; and after she was thoroughly reconciled to her duty which lay before her, Rowena left her to write her letters, and went off out of the house and along the lanes with swift light steps.