speaking with an effort. "Brook says that you have been very good
to him, and so I want to thank you at once. Yes--this is your
daughter--Brook introduced me. Excuse me--I'll get round to my place
again. Shall we meet after luncheon?"

"If you like," said Mrs. Bowring in a constrained tone. "By all means,"
she added nervously.

"My dear," said Sir Adam, speaking across the table to his wife, "let me
introduce you to my old friend Mrs. Bowring, the mother of this young
lady whom you have already met," he added, glancing down at Clare's
flaxen head.

Again Lady Johnstone slightly bent her apoplectic neck, but her
expression was not stony, as it had been when she had first looked at
Clare. On the contrary, she smiled very pleasantly and naturally, and
her frank blue eyes looked at Mrs. Bowring with a friendly interest.

Clare thought that she heard a faint sigh of relief escape her mother's
lips just then. Sir Adam's heavy steps echoed upon the tile floor, as he
marched all round the table again to his seat. The table itself was
narrow, and it was easy to talk across it, without raising the voice.
Sir Adam sat on one side of his wife, and Brook on the other, last on
his side, as Clare was on hers.

There was very little conversation at first. Brook did not care to talk
across to Clare, and Sir Adam seemed to have said all he meant to say
for the present. Lady Johnstone, who seemed to be a cheerful,
conversational soul, began to talk to Mrs. Bowring, evidently attracted
by her at first sight.

"It's a beautiful place when you get here," she said. "Isn't it? The
view from my window is heavenly! But to get here! Dear me! I was carried
up by two men, you know, and I thought they would have died. I hope
they are enjoying their dinner, poor fellows! I'm sure they never
carried such a load before!"

And she laughed, with a sort of frank, half self-commiserating amusement
at her own proportions.

"Oh, I fancy they must be used to it," said Mrs. Bowring, reassuringly,
for the sake of saying something.

"They'll hate the sight of me in a week!" said Lady Johnstone. "I mean
to go everywhere, while I'm here--up all the hills, and down all the
valleys. I always see everything when I come to a new place. It's
pleasant to sit still afterwards, and feel that you've done it all,
don't you know? I shall ruin you in porters, Adam," she added, turning
her large round face slowly to her husband.

"Certainly, certainly," answered S