recollections of the scene he had conjured up, flung his arms round his mother’s neck and then held up his face to Jacynth to be kissed. “Let’s kiss altogether,” he said in the effusiveness of the moment, and Fenella was fain once more to turn away her head lest Jacynth should see her blushes. In connection with all this portion of the disastrous chances that Ronny had experienced, it will be noticed that no mention of his father crossed his lips. It was only when the moving accident on board the _Danic_ was under discussion that Frank’s share in the strange eventful history came to be narrated, and even then, whether for the reason that Jacynth’s presence recalled his behavior on that dreadful night more strongly to Ronny’s mind than that of his absent father, or whether because his personality was in point of fact so much the stronger of the two, it is certain that the child persistently assigned the _rôle_ of the principal hero to his friend, notwithstanding the well-intentioned efforts of the latter to transfer a portion of his laurels to Lord Onslow. _Les absents ont toujours tort_, says the French proverb, and in a modified sense Ronny was unconsciously proving the truth of the proverb. It must not be supposed, however, that Fenella neglected to inform herself in so far as was possible of her husband’s movements. The telegram from Guernsey had apprised her of his safe arrival, and of his enforced detention through bad weather. The three days’ gale had grown into a five days’ gale, and every morning Jacynth notified to Lady Onslow, with an expression of becoming gravity, the deplorable reports that had reached him from the meteorological authorities; and insisted upon the inadvisability of risking a Channel crossing until the present tempestuous winds should have abated. As Ronny was growing hourly better, and had been promoted by the doctor from roast chicken to mutton chops, and, indeed, to “anything he fancied,” which was a larger order perhaps than the worthy man could have imagined, Lady Onslow accepted the delay in her husband’s return with commendable philosophy. I am not sure that she would have shown equal resignation if there had been no one at hand to participate in her delight at Ronny’s recovery, but Jacynth’s interest in the event seemed almost to equal her own, and his skillful suggestion that the longer Frank remained away the greater would be the joyful surprise that awaited him, as regarded the amount of flesh that Ronny would have put on during his absence, seemed the best of reasons for taking patience.