"You would have been disappointed if we had." "I should have understood." Then, after making further sympathetic reference to Harold's condition, Mavis said: "What a dear dog this is! Is he yours?" "It's Harold's. She's no business to be in here. She'll dirty your dress." "I don't mind in the least." "Let me turn her out," said Victoria, as she rose from her seat. "Please don't. I love to have her with me," pleaded Mavis, adding, as Victoria acceded to her request: "Don't you like dogs?" "In their proper place. Jill wouldn't be allowed in at all if Harold didn't sometimes wish it." "If I had a house, it should be full of dogs," remarked Mavis. "I understand that you were born near here." "Yes, at Melkbridge Court." "I don't know what time you go back, but, after luncheon--of course you'll stay--you might take the opportunity of your being down here to have a look at the old place." "I--I might," faltered Mavis, who suddenly felt as if all the happiness had been taken out of her life; for Miss Devitt's words hinted that her family was not going to keep Mavis at Melkbridge House. She looked regretfully at the dog, then inquiringly at Victoria, when Mrs Devitt came into the drawing-room. Her eyes at once fell on Mavis's comeliness; looking at her step-daughter, she found herself comparing the appearance of the two girls. Before she had offered her hand to Mavis, she had decided that, beside her, Victoria appeared at a disadvantage. Although Mavis's hair and colouring might only appeal to a certain order of taste, the girl's distinction, to which one of the Miss Mees had alluded earlier in the day, was glaringly patent to Mrs Devitt's sharp eyes; beside this indefinable personal quality, Mrs Devitt observed with a shudder, Victoria seemed middle-class. Mavis's fate, as far as the Devitts were concerned, was decided in the twinkling of an eye. For all this decision, so suddenly arrived at, Mrs Devitt greeted Mavis kindly; indeed, the friendliness that she displayed caused the girl's hopes to rise. "Luncheon will be ready directly. We are only waiting for my husband," said Mrs Devitt. "You must be hungry after your journey," added Victoria. "I've always a healthy appetite, whatever I do," remarked Mavis, who was fondly regarding the black spaniel. Then Montague Devitt, Lowther, and Miss Spraggs entered the drawing-room, to all of whom Mavis was introduced. The men were quite cordial, too cordial to a girl who, after all, was seeking a dependant's place, thought Mrs Devitt. Already she envied Mavis for her family, the while she despised her for her poverty. The attentions that her husband and stepson were already paying her were a hint of what Mrs Devitt might expect where the eligible men of her acquaintance were concerned. She felt the necessity of striking a jarring note in the harmony of the proceedings. Jill, the spaniel, who, at that moment, sprang upon Mavis's lap, supplied the means. "What is Jill doing here?"