"You dear thing!" she cried. "Wasn't it abominable of me? Was the arrival desperately weary? Come up to my bedroom. The men haven't come yet. What ages it seems since we said good-bye at Nice! How are you?" She talked in her masterful voice, without waiting for a reply, until they entered the bedroom. There her maid, who was busying herself at the dressing-table, came forward to assist Clodagh; but Lady Frances checked her at once. "Mrs. Milbanke won't need you, Rees. I'll take off her cloak." Rees moved obediently towards the door; but there she ventured to pause for a moment. "I hope you had a comfortable journey, madam," she said. Clodagh, invariably gracious to her inferiors, turned to her warmly. "Thank you, Rees! An excellent journey! But I'm glad to see everybody look so well." She added the last with a little smile, to which the maid responded as she closed the door. Lady Frances laughed. "You have bewitched Rees!" she said. "But you do that as you eat or sleep--by instinct. Let me look at you!" She laid her hands on Clodagh's shoulders and turned her towards the light. "You've been playing every night since I left you," she said with decision. Clodagh laughed with some constraint. "And losing?" Clodagh flushed. "I have no luck," she said shortly. Then, almost at once, she turned away, freeing herself from her companion's detaining hands. "Lady Frances," she said in a different tone, "please don't think I forget about--about----" she hesitated. "I get my first allowance at the beginning of July, you know----" She paused; and Lady Frances gave a seemingly careless laugh. "My good child, don't speak of it! Any time!--any time!" "You are very kind. I had hoped to settle up on my return, but the last week was shocking. But everything will be right at the beginning of July. She walked over to the dressing-table and looked at herself in the long glass. "What a sweet house you have!" she said suddenly in an entirely different voice. Lady Frances had been watching her with a close scrutiny; but now, with a good deal of ready dissimulation, she threw off her attentive manner and answered in Clodagh's own light tone. "Yes; it is a nice little place. But what about the flat? Isn't that perfect?" "Yes." "You are not enthusiastic? Oh, I _am_ disappointed!" Clodagh turned from the mirror. "Forgive me!" she said impulsively. "Of course the flat is perfectly sweet--and exactly what I want. It was just the arriving alone that made it seem a little--a little----" "Of course!--of course! Poor dear child! But wait!--wait till you begin to know people!" Clodagh's expressive face brightened. "Yes. And when Nance--when my sister comes back! Oh! I _must_ enjoy myself! I _must_ be happy!" "Why should you be anything else? When have you heard from your sister?"