I telegraphed as soon as the office opened. Mr. Surdan is a man of business, and the appointment was settled before night. Next day I went up to help find the boy a comfortable home. Don't be shocked now! I am simply echoing Will when I say: "Morecambe is a _God-forsaken_ place." _Rooms_ were out of the question, because he must have _some_ one to look after him. I was recommended to a worthy old clergyman, when everything else failed; and, though Will protested beforehand, he resigned himself when we reached the house. Just the father, the mother and two daughters, who seemed quite fluttered on meeting Will and hearing who he was. _Quite_ pretty girls in a "left-to-run-wild" way... Which I, personally, did not mind. After a month of dear Hilda's nakedness it was a comfort to drop into a world where you saw more clothes than _jeune fille_... Oh, I don't think Will runs any risk from _them_; he _does_ realize that love--in the homely old phrase--doesn't pay the butcher's book; and, after that, one has only to school oneself not to fall in love carelessly. But they will give him pleasant, bright companionship in the long evenings... When I returned to London, Hilda was in bed. An internal chill... She wouldn't see a doctor, she said, as a few days' rest and warmth were all that she needed. _I_ was not sorry to have a few days' rest too. First Will and then Culroyd... I found my little visitor a greater strain than I had anticipated... My "rest" was "nothing to write home about", as Will used to say, for I found myself required to cope with a lioness which had been robbed of its cub--Culroyd, I mean. He came as usual expecting to see Hilda--and pretending he _only_ wanted to see his poor old aunt! _And_ left the moment he had swallowed his coffee! It's a good thing I'm not vain, isn't it? Next day he came again... At first it was habit, I think; he had got into the way of meeting this child every day. Then it became more serious. If we are going to bless this union, I think we must also bless Hilda's influenza. (It developed into that. And a nice time I had! Responsible to her mother--and day after day the girl _refused_ to see a doctor.) These boys and girls go about together so freely that there is little inducement to bring things to a head, as it were. Goodness me, when I first met Arthur, he would have _liked_ to go about with me everywhere, but my dear mother put her foot down very firmly on _that_. And, when he found that it was almost impossible for us to meet, Arthur suddenly discovered that I meant more to him than he had suspected... So with Culroyd; history repeating itself, so to say... Hilda was a _habit_; and, when the habit was broken by influenza, she developed into a _need_. Culroyd had never taken much trouble before, but now he called every afternoon with flowers and wrote to her morning and evening. She was quite bewildered. A very simple child...