lly don't
know. Somehow he's not the sort of person whose age one thinks about."

"Anyway, he's old enough to know better than to be lending you money
to play bridge with," commented Sara. "I wish you'd give up playing,
Molly."

"Oh, I couldn't!" coaxingly. "We play for very small stakes--as a
rule. But it _is_ amusing, Sara. And, you know this place is as dull
as ditchwater unless one does _something_. But I won't get into debt
again--I really won't."

Molly had all the caressing charm of a nice kitten, and now that the
pressing matter of her indebtedness to Lester Kent was settled, she
relapsed into her usual tranquil, happy-go-lucky self. She rubbed her
cheek confidingly against Sara's.

"You are a pet angel, Sara, my own," she said. "I'm so glad you adopted
us. Now I can go to the Herricks' tea-party this afternoon without
having that twenty pounds nagging at the back of my mind all the time. I
suppose"--glancing at the clock--"it's time we put on our glad rags. The
Lavender Lady said she expected us at four."

Half-an-hour later, Molly reappeared, looking quite impossibly lovely
in a frock of the cheapest kind of material, "run up" by the local
dressmaker, and very evidently with no other thought "at the back of her
mind" than of the afternoon's entertainment.

The tea-party was a small one, commensurate with the size of the rooms
at Rose Cottage, and included only Sara and Molly, Mrs. Maynard, and, to
Sara's surprise, Garth Trent.

As she entered the room, he turned quietly from the window where he had
been standing looking out at the Herricks' charming garden.

"Mr. Trent"--Miss Lavinia fluttered forward--"let me introduce you to
Miss Tennant."

The Lavender Lady's pretty, faded blue eyes beamed benevolently on him.
She was so _very_ glad that "that poor, lonely fellow at Far End" had at
last been induced to desert the solitary fastnesses of Monk's Cliff,
but as she was simply terrified at the prospect of entertaining him
herself--and Audrey Maynard seemed already fully occupied, chatting with
Miles--she was only too thankful to turn him across to Sara's competent
hands.

"We've met before, Miss Lavinia," said Trent, and over her head his
hazel eyes met Sara's with a gamin amusement dancing in them. "Miss
Tennant kindly called on me at Far End."

"Oh, I didn't know." Little Miss Lavinia gazed in a puzzled fashion from
one to the other of her guests. "Sara, my dear, you never told me that
you and Dr