The trenchant lady had had her sailing orders, and was going to follow them. Mr. Tompsett-King had told her that Sanchia must be led, not driven, into Ingram's arms. “Assume the best of her, my dear friend,” he had said, “if you wish to get the best out of her. Take right intentions for granted. It is very seldom that a woman can resist that kind of flattery. So far as I can read your sister's mind, she has suffered from your mother's abrupt methods. I beg of you not to repeat them. Nothing but mischief could come of it.” When Mr. Tompsett-King called her his dear friend, she knew that he was serious. But Sanchia's mood had not been reckoned with: Philippa was not Vicky. In the old days, in a wonderfully harmonious household, there had been a latent rivalry between her and all her juniors. The greatest trouble had been with Sanchia, the deliberate. And so it was now that when the elder warmed to her task of making bad best, she was suddenly chilled by that old pondering and weighing which had always offended her. Sanchia replied to her assumptions and suppositions by saying simply that she didn't know where Mr. Ingram was, and that he was no better informed of her than she of him. But surely--Philippa raised her brows--but surely she knew when he was coming to London? Sanchia's head-shake shocked her. There was but one conclusion to be drawn from it. “There's been a quarrel,” then said she. “No,” Sanchia answered--as if thinking it out--“no, I shouldn't say that. I should say, a difference of opinion.” “My dear,” said Philippa--and the phrase with her was one of reproof--“on essentials there can have been none. He will wait a year, of course. Under the circumstances, a full year. But--” Sanchia had replied, “I don't know what he means to do. I have left Wanless.” “Oh, of course, of course. But--I was going to say--I fully expect that he has written to Mamma.” Sanchia's eyebrows and her, “I should think that unlikely. Why should he write to Mamma?” frightened Philippa, while to Mr. Tompsett-King's mind they were clear gain. It was necessary, after it, to get on to surer ground. The interview terminated by an understanding that Sanchia should write to her mother.