then deal with her."

"So could I," echoed his father, who was feeling rather in the cold.
Charles had been kind in undertaking the funeral arrangements and in
telling him to eat his breakfast, but the boy as he grew up was a little
dictatorial, and assumed the post of chairman too readily. "I could deal
with her, if she comes, but she won't come. You're all a bit hard on
Miss Schlegel."

"That Paul business was pretty scandalous, though."

"I want no more of the Paul business, Charles, as I said at the time,
and besides, it is quite apart from this business. Margaret Schlegel has
been officious and tiresome during this terrible week, and we have
all suffered under her, but upon my soul she's honest. She's NOT in
collusion with the matron. I'm absolutely certain of it. Nor was she
with the doctor, I'm equally certain of that. She did not hide anything
from us, for up to that very afternoon she was as ignorant as we are.
She, like ourselves, was a dupe--" He stopped for a moment. "You see,
Charles, in her terrible pain your mother put us all in false positions.
Paul would not have left England, you would not have gone to Italy, nor
Evie and I into Yorkshire, if only we had known. Well, Miss Schlegel's
position has been equally false. Take all in all, she has not come out
of it badly."

Evie said: "But those chrysanthemums--"

"Or coming down to the funeral at all--" echoed Dolly.

"Why shouldn't she come down? She had the right to, and she stood far
back among the Hilton women. The flowers--certainly we should not have
sent such flowers, but they may have seemed the right thing to her,
Evie, and for all you know they may be the custom in Germany."

"Oh, I forget she isn't really English," cried Evie. "That would explain
a lot."

"She's a cosmopolitan," said Charles, looking at his watch. "I admit I'm
rather down on cosmopolitans. My fault, doubtless. I cannot stand them,
and a German cosmopolitan is the limit. I think that's about all, isn't
it? I want to run down and see Chalkeley. A bicycle will do. And, by the
way, I wish you'd speak to Crane some time. I'm certain he's had my new
car out."

"Has he done it any harm?"

"No."

"In that case I shall let it pass. It's not worth while having a row."

Charles and his father sometimes disagreed. But they always parted
with an increased regard for one another, and each desired no doughtier
comrade when it was necessary to voyage for a little past the emotion