the had
nothing to do with such things!

Halcyone caught Miss Roberta's piteous, subdued eye, and smiled a
tender, kind smile. With years her understanding of her ancient aunts
had grown. They were no longer rather contemptible, narrow-minded elders
in her eyes, but filled her with a pitiful and gentle respect. Their
courage under adversity, their firm self-control, and the force which
made them live up to their idea of the fitness of things, appealed to
her strongly. She had John Derringham's quality of detached
consideration, and appreciated her old relatives as exquisite relics of
the past, as well as her own kith and kin.

"In America, divorce is not considered the heinous crime it was once in
England," Mr. Carlyon said. "Perhaps this lady may have been greatly
sinned against and deserves all our pity and regard."

But Miss La Sarthe remained obdurate. The point was not as to who was in
the right, she explained, but that certain conventions, laid down by one
whose memory was revered, had been outraged, and she could never permit
her sister or Halcyone to have any intercourse with the tenant of
Wendover Park!

The preparations for the new arrival went on apace all the autumn and
winter. Armies of workpeople were reported to be in possession, and
whole train-loads of splendid French furniture were known to have
arrived at Applewood, to augment the antique and time-worn pieces which
were Wendover's own.

Miss Le Sarthe sent for the Long Man. Things had been rather better of
late, and no more precious belongings had been forced to be parted with.
An investment which had been valueless for years now began to produce
some interest which was a great comfort, for Miss La Sarthe was now
seventy-nine and Miss Roberta seventy-six.

The orders that the agent received were precise. The gate between
Wendover and La Sarthe Chase which had been closed for over a hundred
years was to be boarded up, and their side of the haw-haw which for
nearly a mile divided the two parks was to be deepened and cleared out,
and the spikes mended in any places where the ground might have seemed
to have fallen in sufficiently, or the irons to have become broken
enough to make the passage easy.

This would be unnecessary, Mr. Martin (the Long Man) told her. The
haw-haw was still as perfect as ever and a wonder of concealed traps for
the unwary, but the gate should be seen to at once.

Thus La Sarthe Chase was armed fully against Wendover, wh