"Thank you, Cleo," Mrs. Delarayne replied after satisfying herself that there was not a trace of insincerity either in the voice or features of her daughter. "We'll see." She rose, smoothed down the front of her frock with a few rapid gestures, and turned to the younger people. "Come on!" she said. "You and I cannot afford to lose our beauty sleep, Cleo. Two hours before midnight,--you know the time, and it's now half-past nine." Evidently Mrs. Delarayne intended to be rude to Denis. Sir Joseph had told her something across the telephone, and she had expected a result which had not occurred. * * * * * The following morning after breakfast Mrs. Delarayne as usual retired to the bureau in the library where every day she devoted at least thirty minutes to her housekeeping duties. Silently on this occasion Cleopatra followed in her wake, and pretending to be in search of a book, lingered in her mother's company longer than was her wont after the morning meal. Book after book was taken down from the shelves, perfunctorily examined and returned to its place. Once or twice the girl looked towards her mother, possibly in the hope that the elder woman would provide the opening to the subject that was uppermost in both their minds. At last Cleopatra spoke. "Baby comes home to-day," she said, in a voice strained to appear cheerful. Mrs. Delarayne looked up from a tradesman's book. "Yes," she sighed wearily. "One of Sir Joseph's cars is coming to fetch us at half-past two. The train reaches King's Cross at three. Will you come?" "Of course,--rather!" Cleopatra exclaimed, taking down another book and examining it cursorily. There was silence again, and Cleopatra could be heard running quickly through the pages of the volume she held. "What is Baby going to do?" she asked after a while. "Don't ask me!" exclaimed the mother. "Haven't you any plans?" the daughter enquired with studied indifference, her eyes wandering vacantly over the letter-press before them. "Plans--what plans?" ejaculated the old lady. "I suppose the poor child will have to put up with us now. You don't suppose we can send her gadding about the Continent again?" "I didn't dream of any such thing!" Cleopatra protested a little guiltily. "No, I promised her that she should come home for good after the School of Domesticity, and she expects it. You saw what she said in her last letter." "Naturally," Cleopatra added, closing her book and replacing it hurriedly on the shelves. "We'll have to put up with it--that's all, my dear. I hope she won't be too trying. But you must really help me a little by taking her off my hands, particularly on my Bridge and 'Inner Light' days." Cleopatra cast a glance full of meaning at her mother, and quietly left the room. She had heard all she wanted to hear. * * * * *