Miss Carrington set Anne Dallas down at Richard Latham’s door. The others had not returned yet. “And Kit will be asked in for tea! Why didn’t I arrange for them to come to me for tea, where I could both watch and ward?” she thought. She bade Anne an affectionate good-night, begging her to pity an old woman, and come to cheer her loneliness with her pretty ways and face. But when she got home she told Minerva as she removed her coat, that “decidedly she should send at once for Helen Abercrombie to visit her.” “Well, if you ask me,” said Minerva with asperity, “I would say that when you’ve exposed a film time and again, and not got any impression on it, you may as well put in a fresh roll.” CHAPTER V _Small Furthering Breezes_ Miss Carrington was much struck by Minerva’s figure of speech. She pondered it in her room, feeling that it embodied wisdom. She was so much struck with it that--to carry it further--she turned over in her mind other films, but none of them fitted her camera, or promised her the picture which she wished to take. She knew many pretty girls, several wealthy ones, a few intellectual and well-bred ones, but she knew no other one who united all these qualities, plus her father’s increasing influence to get for Kit a successful career, as did Helen Abercrombie. She dismissed each candidate as she reviewed her, and sat down to urge upon Miss Abercrombie a speedy repetition of her visit to Cleavedge, with such eloquence that on the fourth day after the note was dispatched Miss Carrington was able to announce to Kit that Helen would be with them within ten days. Kit received the news with dismay. He knew that all his ingenuity, and he had his full share of skill in getting out of things, would not enable him to escape the curtailment of his freedom entailed by the presence of Helen Abercrombie as a guest in his home. “The shackles of civilization” is not an empty phrase. Kit foresaw the difficulty with which he should escape the entanglements of courtesy to his aunt and her guest. He knew that he should have all sorts of cobweb footfalls set for him, binding him fast when he would go to catch a glimpse of Anne Dallas. He recognized in himself a desire to see the girl that made it to all intents and purposes a necessity.