“I am afraid it is no good,” Hugh told him. “It seems to be definitely fixed that Margaret is to remain in England.” But at dinner that night they were thrown once more into perplexity. Mr. Fane-Herbert was away in the North, and was not expected home until Saturday afternoon, when he would bring Mr. Ordith with him. “I believe Mr. Ordith is a wonderful dancer,” Mrs. Fane-Herbert said. “From all accounts,” Hugh replied, “he must be wonderful at everything.” “My dear Hugh, you speak as if you disliked him already, without ever having seen him.” “I don’t dislike him, but I can’t see what he has to do with our affairs.” “Our affairs?” “Margaret’s going to China. It was all fixed up before Ordith came on the scene.” Mrs. Fane-Herbert smiled. This was a chance better than she had hoped for. “Now,” she said, “shall I show you how wrong you are? I had a letter from father this afternoon, and, so far as I can judge, for he is not at all definite, he has been thinking it all over, and has come to the conclusion----” “That I am to go after all, mother?” Margaret interrupted. “Do say I am to go!” “Well, dear, I don’t want you to be disappointed again, but I must say that father seems to incline more towards taking you.... So you see, Hugh, how little Mr. Ordith had to do with the matter. It is very foolish to make rash judgments.” “But why has father changed his mind?” “It doesn’t matter why,” said Margaret. “The point is that he has changed it.” Hugh shrugged his shoulders. “It beats me, I confess.” His mother allowed Hugh’s suspicion to fade into silence. To have attempted to remove it would have been to emphasize it, and this she wished to avoid. Her husband’s letter had given her two pieces of information, the last of which explained the first. “_I think_,” he had written, “_that, after all, Margaret had better come with us when we leave England. Edith might not wish to be burdened with her. I know you would like to have her with you, and that she herself is anxious to come. There are many obstacles, but, if you have really set your heart on taking her, none that I am not prepared to overcome if I can. We will talk it over when I reach home_.” Mrs. Fane-Herbert, when she read this, was as astonished as Hugh had been when he heard of it; but at the end of the letter, separated from her husband’s decision by more pages than he usually troubled to write to her, was a brief announcement which made all clear: “_Ordith has been appointed to the_ Pathshire _as an additional Gunnery Lieutenant. Isn’t it a strange coincidence in connection with Hugh?_” To Mrs. Fane-Herbert it was an illumination uncomfortably brilliant.