"But only nice things did happen, dear! I always fall on my feet, you
know, and Mr Vanburgh is an old love. He sent his respects to you, and
hoped you and father would do him the favour of paying a second call, as
he would much like to make the acquaintance of my parents! It was the
first time in my life that I had heard you spoken of as adjuncts of my
noble self, and I can tell you I felt proud. Really and truly, it was a
blessing I went, for you can't think how he enjoyed seeing me. I said
good-bye three times over before he would let me go, and I told him
every single thing about our family!"

"I've no doubt you did!" Mrs Rendell groaned aloud, and stared
helplessly at the ceiling. "Please add to your list of prohibitions for
the future, my dear, that you are forbidden to go outside the door in an
assumed costume; and do try to behave like a reasonable creature,
instead of a hare-brained schoolboy! I can't make any promise about
calling again until I see what father says."

Nan was comfortably secure that her father would do as he was told, and
had little difficulty in persuading the good man that, above all things
in the world, he desired to make the acquaintance of his neighbour.
There was little fear that the visit would be deferred too long; for
with five daughters vying with each other to introduce the subject on
every possible opportunity, and to discuss times and seasons at
breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it speedily became an object to get the
call paid as soon as possible.

On the very next Saturday afternoon, therefore, Mrs Rendell attired
herself in calling array, was carefully surveyed by a critical audience,
pronounced to be a "credit to the family," and despatched to the Grange,
with a score of divergent instructions as to what to do, what to say,
and, above all, how to lay the foundation-stone of a future intimacy.

Perhaps, if the truth were known, Mrs Rendell was scarcely less excited
than her daughters at the prospect of being admitted into the presence
of the mysterious stranger; but if this were so, she was doomed to
disappointment, for the invalid seemed too weary and dispirited to enter
into conversation, and it was only by a most apparent effort that he
roused himself to reply to her remarks. Mrs Rendell would have felt
repelled by his coldness of manner, had it not been for one redeeming
point--his unaffected interest in her children! The wan face brightened
into a smile at the m