There was a reproach in her brother-in-law’s gaze that made her feel as if she were being utterly remorseless in her persistency. Nevertheless, Caleb turned on quite easily that cordial welcoming smile. “I’m so glad,” he murmured from the other side of the universe. “I don’t think tea will be long now.” “Oh, please don’t bother about tea,” she begged. Caleb beamed more intensely. “Oh, please,” he protested on his side. “My aunts and I would be very much upset indeed if you didn’t have tea. And to-day’s Thursday!” Nancy looked puzzled. “I see I shall have to let you into a little family secret. We always have a new cake on Thursday,” he proclaimed, smiling now with a beautifully innocent archness. Turning to Letizia he added playfully, “I expect you like cakes, don’t you?” “I like the cakes what Mrs. Porridge makes for me,” Letizia replied. “Oatmeal cakes?” Caleb asked in bewilderment. “Letizia,” her mother interrupted quickly, “please don’t answer your uncle in that horrid rude way. Mrs. Pottage was our landlady at Greenwich,” she explained. Caleb looked coldly grave. He disapproved of landladies with their exorbitant bills. “You must find it very unpleasant always being robbed by landladies,” he said. “Bram and I were very lucky usually. We met far more pleasant landladies than unpleasant ones.” Nancy paused. She was wondering if she should be able to explain her mission more easily if the subject of it were not present. “I wonder if Letizia’s aunts would like to see her?” “Oh, I’m sure they would,” Caleb answered. “We’ll all go into the drawing-room. I’m sure you must be wanting your tea.” “If we could leave Letizia with her aunts, I would like very much to talk to you for a minute or two alone.” Caleb squirmed. “Don’t be anxious,” Nancy laughed. “I’m not going to ask you to lend me any money.” “Oh, of course not,” he said with a shudder. “I never thought you were going to do that. I knew Bram would have explained to you that I really couldn’t afford it. We have had the most dreadful expenses lately in connection with the factory. I have had to lock up several thousand pounds.” He made this announcement with as much judicial severity as if he had actually condemned the greater part of his fortune to penal servitude for life. “Yes, it must be horrible to have a lot of money that can’t behave itself,” Nancy agreed. Her brother-in-law regarded her disapprovingly. He resented few things more than jokes, for he objected to wasting those ready smiles of his almost as much as he hated wasting his ready money. “Well, shall we go into the drawing-room?” he asked, trying to make his guest feel that merely to lead her from one room to another in Lebanon House was giving her much more than he would give many people for nothing.