"Yes, he came to see me and left his hat in the hall and Michael took it away with him in his rage. It was the only top-hat he'd got, and he had an engagement for an 'at home,' and he couldn't go out in the sun, and, oh dear, you never heard such a fuss, and when Mabel--" "Mabel?" "--Miss Harper, my housekeeper, offered to go out and buy him another, he was livid with fury. He asked if I thought he was made of money and could buy top-hats like matches. I'm glad you've come. Michael has broken off the engagement, and I expected you rather. A friend of his--rather a nice boy called Maurice Avery--is coming round this evening to arrange about selling everything. I shall have quite a lot of money. Let's go away and be quiet after all this bother and fuss." "Look here," Sylvia said. "Before we go any further I want to know one thing. Is Claude going to drop in and out of your life at critical moments for the rest of time?" "Oh no! We've quarreled now. He'll never forgive me over the hat. Besides, he puts some stuff on his hair now that I don't like. Sylvia, do come and look at my frocks. I've got some really lovely frocks." Maurice Avery, to whom Sylvia took an instant dislike, came in presently. He seemed to attribute the ruin of his friend's hopes entirely to a failure to take his advice: "Of course this was the wrong house to start with. I advised him to take one at Hampstead, but he wouldn't listen to me. The fact is Michael doesn't understand women." "Do you?" Sylvia snapped. Avery looked at her a moment, and said he understood them better than Michael. "Of course nobody can ever really understand a woman," he added, with an instinct of self-protection. "But I advised him not to leave Lily alone. I told him it wasn't fair to her or to himself." "Did you give him any advice about disposing of the furniture?" Sylvia asked. "Well, I'm arranging about that now." "Sorry," said Sylvia. "I thought you were paving Michael's past with your own good intentions." "You mustn't take any notice of her," Lily told Avery, who was looking rather mortified. "She's rude to everybody." "Well, shall I tell you my scheme for clearing up here?" he asked. "If it will bring us any nearer to business," Sylvia answered, "we'll manage to support the preliminary speech." A week or two later Avery handed Lily £270, which she immediately transferred to Sylvia's keeping. "I kept the Venetian mirror for myself," Avery said. "You know the one with the jolly little cupids in pink and blue glass. I shall always think of you and Ararat House when I look at myself in it." "I suppose all your friends wear their hearts on your sleeve," Sylvia said. "That must add a spice to vanity." Mrs. Gainsborough was very much upset at the prospect of the girls' going away. "That comes of having me picture painted. I felt it was unlucky when he was doing it. Oh, dearie me! whatever shall I do?"