She darted off, and returned a moment later with Charlie in her arms. There were yards of mauve ribbon lying on the table and she cut off a length and tied it in a bow round his neck; then she kissed his head and dropped him on to his cushion. "There! Now, we're quite at home again," she said. "And now, fire away and tell me why you're here." She packed all the dishes and boxes on to a tray, put them out of sight behind a screen and came back to the fire. "Do you like this perfume? It's something new! I'm trying to blend it with white rose. Isn't it gorgeous?" "Beautiful!" said Esther. She consented to have her chin dabbed. "What are you making now?" she asked. Miss Mason chuckled. "Oh, I'm only experimising, as Micky calls it," she said lightly. "We don't want to talk shop. You've got some news; I can see by your face that you have." Esther laughed and flushed. "Oh, I have," she said tremulously. "Such wonderful news." "Humph!" said June drily. "From the young man, of course? Well, is he on his way home, and have you got to get a wedding dress in the next five minutes or something?" "Oh no, it isn't anything like that," said Esther. There was a shade of regret in her voice. "But he's in Paris--he says he's not staying there, but he had to pay a business call." June gave a rather unladylike sniff, but Esther was too engrossed to notice. "He seems to have been very lucky," she went on. "He hadn't got very much money when he went away, but he's got some appointment now; he does not say what and...."--she gave a little excited laugh--"he says that he's going to send me £3 a week for as long as he is away.... Isn't it wonderfully good of him? I suppose I ought not to take it, but he says that if things had turned out as he hoped, we should have been married, and so ... you don't think it's wrong of me to take it, do you?" she asked anxiously. June rose to her feet. She looked chagrined; she had been so sure that this man was a rotter, that it was a bit of a set-back to hear this news. "You take it, my dear, and don't be a goose," she said promptly. "As he says, if you were his wife you'd take it, and as you're going to be married, it's quite the right thing if he's well off that he should help you! I hope you won't let your silly pride make you send it back; you'd only hurt his feelings." "I wouldn't do that for anything," Esther said quickly. "But it's such a lot of money." "Rubbish!" said June. "Why, Micky Mellowes wouldn't even stop to pick it up if he dropped it in the road." "We are not all millionaires like Mr. Mellowes," Esther said sharply. "And he ought to be ashamed of himself if he really wouldn't stop to pick it up." June laughed. "Don't you take things so literally, my dear," she said. "I know you don't like Micky, though you've never seen him, but I'm going to ask him here to tea one day, if he'll come----" "I don't suppose he will," said Esther. "Elphinstone Road wouldn't be good enough for him, would it?"