How would Charmian receive the news that Claude Heath was to dine with them that night? Would she be too tired by the journey to dine? She was a bad sailor. Perhaps the sea in the Channel had been rough. If so, she would arrive not looking her best. Mrs. Mansfield had invited Heath because she wished to be sure at the first possible moment whether Charmian was in love with him or not. And she was positive that now, consciously alert and suspicious, if she saw the two together even for a short time she would know. And if she knew that it was so, that Charmian had set her affections on Heath--what then? She resolved not to look beyond the day. But as the moments passed, and she waited, her mind, like a thing beyond control, began to occupy itself with that question. The distant hoot of a motor startled her. Although their motor had a horn exactly the same as a thousand others she knew at once that Charmian was entering the Square. Half a minute later, standing in the doorway of her sitting-room, she heard the door bell and the footsteps of Lassell, the butler. Impulsively she went to the staircase. "Charmian!" she called. "Charmian!" "My only mother!" came up a voice from below. She saw Charmian pushing up her veil over her three-cornered travelling-hat with a bright red feather. "Where are you? Oh, there!" She came up the stairs. "Such a crossing! I'm an unlucky girl! Remedies are no use. Dearest!" She put two light hands on her mother's shoulders and kissed her twice with lips which were rather cold. Her face was pale, and her eyes looked unusually haggard and restless. An atmosphere of excitement seemed to surround her like an aura, Mrs. Mansfield thought. She put her arm through her mother's. "Tea with you, and then I think I must go to bed. How nice to be in my own dear bed again! I thought of my pillows on board with a yearning that came from the soul, I'm sure. Of course, we left the yacht at Marseilles. The yachting there was such a talk about resolved itself into the two crossings. I wasn't sorry, for we never saw a calm sea except from the shore." "No? What a shame! Sit here." Charmian threw herself down with a movement that was very young and began taking off her long gloves. As her thin, pretty hands came out of them, Mrs. Mansfield bent down and kissed her. "Dear child! How nice to have you safe home!" "Is it?" "What a silly question to ask your only mother!" "This chair makes me feel exactly how tired I am. It tells me." "Take off your hat." "Shall I?" She put up her hands, but she left the hat where it was, and her mother did not ask why. "Is Adelaide back?" "No, I left her glued to Paris. I crossed with Susan Fleet. Oh!" She rested her head on the back of the big chair, and shut her eyes. "Only tea. I can't eat!" "Here it is." "I feel as if I'd been away for centuries, as if London must have changed." "It hasn't." "And you?" "Oh, of course, I've shed my nature, as you see!"