"If she does not go, will you ask her to come with her mother? She is a dear girl. I am very fond of her." He shook his head. "Rather too headstrong for me. She has not the sweet clinging nature of her mother." Sidney turned away. "Thank God, no!" she murmured to herself. The next morning, as soon as she was set free from her housekeeping duties, she tramped off to see Monica. She had a great difficulty in finding her, but eventually came upon her looking after some ewes with their tiny lambs. It was a cold day, and she was superintending a rough shelter being put up for them in a field. "Poor mites!" said Monica, looking at the tiny bleating creatures ambling round their mothers, who did not seem to know how to protect them properly from the wind. "What an unfriendly world they have come into! How they must long to go out of it again." "Yes," said Sidney gravely. "But if we were all granted our wishes, what a lot of hurried exits there would be from this world." "What has happened?" Monica asked, pulling on her leather gloves and taking Sidney's arm. "Let us get out of this field and tramp the high road for a bit, shall we? I have nothing particular to do at this present moment." "I want you to come to dinner to-night. You must not fail me. I never shall be able to get through alone. It is to welcome the future Mrs. Edward Urquhart into our family." "Really? Oh, Sidney dear, I am sorry." "You must not express regrets. We must carry it off happily and cheerily." "Then I think you had better have Jockie, not me." "It is you I want. Jockie is the last person who will be asked to meet her. She is very naughty about her." "She does not hide her dislike to her, I own. Well, Sidney, our fears have come true. You see, there was never anything between her and Austin. I always felt that she was much more attracted to your uncle. Don't you think they will make their home somewhere else? If so, it will not affect you much." Sidney shook her head. "It will be us who will have to make our home elsewhere. I am perfectly certain she covets the old house and grounds. I don't say so to father. I think it will break his heart if he has to go. He loves his grandfather's guns on the terrace." "I have never heard the history of them." "Oh, they were the guns of his ship that he commanded under Nelson. And when the ship was broken up, and the guns became obsolete, he got possession of them. I see father stroking them down sometimes, as if they were live creatures. One thing is certain—that we shall never be able to live all together in one house. I know you think me prejudiced, Monnie, but Mrs. Norman has disliked me from the very first moment she saw me. There is some instinctive antipathy between us. I felt it, too." Monica looked very grave. "Jockie has been saying something of the same sort. She is like a little tiger where you are concerned."