adorned the silver-grey hair, and the face beneath the
cap was just what you would have expected to find it--soft and very
gentle, its porcelain pink and white a little faded, the pretty old eyes
a misty, lavender blue.

She was alone when the two girls arrived, and greeted Sara with a
humorous little smile.

"How kind of you to come, Miss Tennant! We've been all agog to meet you,
Miles and I. In a tiny place like Monkshaven, you see, every one knows
every one else's business, so of course we have been hearing of you
constantly."

"Then you might have come to Sunnyside to investigate me personally,"
replied Sara, smiling back.

Miss Lavinia's face sobered suddenly, a shadow falling across her kind
old eyes.

"Miles is--rather difficult about calling," she said hesitatingly. "You
will understand--his lameness makes him a little self-conscious with
strangers," she explained.

Sara looked distressed.

"Oh! Perhaps it would have been better if I had not come?" she suggested
hastily. "Shall I run away and leave Molly here?"

Miss Lavinia flushed rose-pink.

"My dear, I hope Miles knows how to welcome a guest in his own house as
befits a Herrick," she said, with a delicious little air of old-world
dignity. "Indeed, it is an excellent thing for him to be dragged out of
his shell. Only, please--will you remember?--treat him exactly as though
he were not lame--never try to help him in any way. It is that which
hurts him so badly--when people make allowances for his lameness. Just
ignore it."

Sara nodded. She could understand that instinctive man's pride which
recoiled from any tolerant recognition of a physical handicap.

"Was his lameness caused by an accident?" she asked.

"It came through a very splendid deed." Little Miss Lavinia's eyes
glowed as she spoke. "He stopped a pair of runaway carriage-horses. They
had taken fright at a motor-lorry, and, when they bolted, the coachman
was thrown from the box, so that it looked as if nothing could save the
occupants of the carriage. Miles flung himself at the horses' heads, and
although, of course, he could not actually stop them single-handed, he
so impeded their progress that a second man, who sprang forward to help,
was able to bring them to a standstill."

"How plucky of him!" exclaimed Sara warmly. "You must be very proud of
your nephew, Miss Lavinia!"

"She is," interpolated Molly affectionately. "Aren't you, dear Lavender
Lady?"

Miss Lavinia smiled a tr