"Let me go up for a week or two, and see her started," pleaded Mabel. "I’ve been there, you know, and know a little about it, and she would have time to feel at home. If I find her really ill, I could send for you. Jean wouldn’t feel an idiot about it if I went up just to see her started." Then Mabel fired her last shot. "It would be good for me, mummy. I’ve been so stuck lately. Won’t you let me go?" Something in Mabel’s voice touched her mother very much. "Won’t Robin miss you?" she asked in a teasing, but anxious way. "You don’t tell us, Mabel, whether you want Robin to miss you or not. And that’s one of the main things, isn’t it?" Mabel started, and her eyes grew wide with a fear of what they might say next. "It’s all right, Mabs! Don’t you worry if you don’t want to talk about it," said her father cheerily. There was a reserve in all of them except Jean which kept them from expressing easily what they were not always willing to hide. "Oh," said Mabel, "I think I did want to, but n-never could. I don’t think I want to be c-coupled with Robin any more. It was fun when I was rather s-silly and young, but it’s different now." She looked at her father quite sedately and quietly. "I think Robin thinks a good deal more of Isobel and I’m glad," she said quite determinedly. "The fact is, I was sure I would be glad if something like that happened. I was sure before Isobel came." Mr. Leighton patted her shoulder. "Thank you, my dear, for telling us. You’re just to do as you like about these things. Difficult to talk about, aren’t they? Remember, I don’t think much of Robin now, or that sister of his. They could have arranged it better, I think. Never mind. I shall be glad to have you find worthier friends." He patted her shoulder again, and looked over at Mrs. Leighton. She was surreptitiously wiping her eyes. Mabel sat strong and straight and rather radiant as though a weight were lifted. "I don’t think," said Mr. Leighton to his wife in a clear voice, "I don’t think that either you or I would be of greater service to Jean than Mabel could be! Now, do you, my dear, seriously, do you?" He kept an eye on her to claim the answer for which he hoped. "I don’t think so, John," said Mrs. Leighton. "Then could you get ready for the 8.50 to-morrow morning?" asked Mr. Leighton of Mabel. Mabel hugged him radiantly for answer. "I don’t know how I can live without two of you, even for a week," he said. "But then, I won’t be selfish. Make the most of it and a success of it, and I shall always be glad afterwards that you went." It was no joke to have to prepare in one evening for a visit to London. Elma’s heart stopped beating when she heard of the arrangement. "Oh, Mabs, and I shall be left with that--bounder!" The word was out. Never had Elma felt so horrified. Years she had spent in listening to refinements in language, only to come to this. Of her own cousin too!