It's a lovely setting, Lavinia decided suddenly. After all there may be an atmosphere about this evening. Grannie is very old and Jessica is very young, and nearly all the happiness and unhappiness that lies in the years between them is bound up with the Greene family. Perhaps that will make Grannie younger and Jessica older, so that they will become alike and indistinguishable. She shivered a little. I'm glad I'm out of it, she thought. This family feeling frightens me. I should hate to feel myself becoming akin to Aunt Dora. Rayner came into the room, switching on the lights so that all the details of colour and form suddenly sprang into being. "Mrs. Greene will be down in a moment," he said. "Thank you," said Lavinia absently. "Rayner, it's going to be very odd to-night." "I hope not, Madam, I'm sure." "Yes, it's bound to be odd; I shall feel like the only human in a company of poor ghosts." _Arosa, December 1927.--Geneva, May 1928._