"You will be sorry to hear," Mrs. Challoner wrote after this, "that I have met with some severe losses. I dare say Mr. Mayne will remember that my poor husband invested our little income in the business of his cousin, Mark Gardiner. We have just heard the unwelcome news that Gardiner & Fowler have failed for a large amount. Under these circumstances, we think it more prudent to leave Glen Cottage as soon as possible, and settle at Hadleigh, where we have a small house belonging to us called the Friary. Fortunately for us, Mr. Trinder has found us a tenant, who will take the remainder of the lease off our hands. Do you remember Mr. Ralph Ibbetson, the Paines' cousin, that rather heavy-looking young man, with reddish hair, who was engaged to that pretty Miss Blake?--well, he has taken Glen Cottage; and I hope you will find them nice neighbors. Tell Dick he must not be too sorry to miss his old friends, but of course you will understand this is a sad break to us. Settling down in a new place is never very pleasant; and as my girls will have to help themselves, and we shall all have to learn to do without things, it will be somewhat of a discipline to us; but as long as we are together, we all feel, such difficulties can be easily borne. "Tell Mr. Mayne that, if I had foreseen how things were to turn out, I would have conquered my indisposition, and not have forfeited my last evening at Longmead." And in the postscript Nan wrote hurriedly,-- "You must not be too sorry for us, dear Mrs. Mayne, for mother is as brave as possible, and we are all determined to make the best of things. "Of course it is very sad leaving dear Glen Cottage, where we have spent such happy, happy days; but, though the Friary is small, we shall make it very comfortable. Tell Dick the garden is a perfect wilderness at present, and that there are no roses,--only a splendid passion-flower that covers the whole back of the house." Nan never knew why she wrote this. Was it to remind him vaguely that the time of roses was over, and that from this day things would be different with them? Nan was quite satisfied when she had despatched this letter. It told just enough, and not too much. It sorely perplexed and troubled Dick; and yet neither he nor his father had the least idea how things really were with the Challoners. "Didn't I tell you so, Bessie?" exclaimed Mr. Mayne, almost in a voice of triumph, as he struck his hand upon the letter. "Paine was right when he spoke of a shaky investment. That comes of women pretending to understand business. A pretty mess they seem to have made of it!" "Mother," said poor Dick, coming up to her when he found himself alone with her for a moment, "I don't understand this letter. I cannot read between the lines, somehow, and yet there seems something more than meets the eye."