The sun was high overhead when she came to herself again. She felt fresh and vigorous now, ready for anything. Then the humorous side of the thing struck her and she laughed. The idea of a Dashwood sleeping out all night like a common tramp! And yet Mary did not quite realise how near the most prosperous of us is to the workhouse. A trick of Fate, misfortunes over money matters, a long illness, and the thing is done. There are thousands of such instances every year. "Do you feel equal to moving yet?" Connie asked. [Illustration: "Under the shade of a tree Mary laid down and closed her weary eyes." (Page 272.)] "My dear, I feel equal to anything." Mary cried. "My courage has come back to me. And now what do you propose to do next?" "The next thing is to call on Grace and tell her of our misfortunes. We must not repeat last night's experiment if we can help it. Besides, there are those drawings for the _Wheezer_ which are promised for tomorrow. They were all finished and lying on my table when the catastrophe happened. I must get them back today." CHAPTER XLII. THE COURAGE OF DESPAIR Grace Cameron was making a pretence of breakfast when Mary and Connie arrived. Her pallid face was more flushed than usual, her cough very distressing. But she had no thought for herself directly the story came to be told. "You poor dears!" she cried. "What a cruel misfortune! To have lost everything in this way is doubly terrible. Oh, if it were only possible for you to stay here! The house is almost full up, and my landlady is independent accordingly. I am expecting every day that she will ask me to go--the breakfast in bed and my late rising give a great deal of trouble. There seems to be nothing that I can do." "Oh, yes, there is," Connie said cheerfully. "You can help us wonderfully. For the moment we are absolutely penniless. Our idea is to take a bed sitting-room together, for a few shillings a week, and restore confidence, in lieu of personal belongings, by paying the rent in advance. I want you to lend me a sovereign for about a week." "But my dear, I haven't got it," Grace said in deep distress. "I only kept a few shillings out of the money you gave me yesterday, the rest I posted to my mother not an hour ago. If I had only known! And I suppose you can't possibly draw any more money from the _Wheezer_ till the end of the week!" "I might have done so," Connie said. "I had the week's drawings finished. They must be in tomorrow or I shall certainly do no more work in that quarter. They were all lying ready on my table when I came round here last night." "Oh, this is dreadful," Grace cried, with the tears in her eyes. "If you had not returned here then, this dreadful thing would never have happened. To think that your kindness and goodness to me should have produced a result like this! Oh, Connie, what are you going to do, what can you do?"