at
Forrester's request. There was a tingling of excitement in her veins as
she climbed on to a city omnibus.

What would they say to her, she wondered. Not that she cared.

Peg had never got on with her mother, who had married again, her second
husband being a man named Johnson, employed at Heeler's factory.

There were two small step-brothers, rough, red-haired little boys, too
like their father for Peg to care about them. But nevertheless the house
in the mean street was the only home she had known, and there was a
faintly pleasurable warmth in her heart as she climbed off the bus at
the corner of the street and walked the remaining few yards.

The street looked more squalid than usual to-day, she thought, not
realizing that the change lay in herself. The door of the house was
open, and down the narrow passage she could hear her mother's scolding
voice and the sound of a well-administered box on the ears, followed by
a prolonged howl from one of the boys.

Peg shivered as she walked down the passage and pushed open the kitchen
door. Had she ever really been happy and contented to live in such
surroundings? And fear went through her heart as she realized that
before long she might have to return to them again.

The kitchen seemed full of people, though at first she could only
distinguish her mother through the mist of steam that was rising from a
wash-tub.

"Hullo!" Peg said laconically. She looked round for a chair, but they
were all occupied, so she leaned against the door, hands on hips.

The red-haired boy who had had his ears boxed stopped howling to stare
at her. Mrs. Johnson deserted the wash-tub and came forward, wiping
soapy arms on a not over-clean apron.

"Well, who'd have thought of seeing you?" she said blankly.

Peg nodded carelessly to her stepfather, who had risen awkwardly to
offer her a chair.

"Thanks, no--I'll stand; I only looked in for a minute." Then her face
changed a little as she recognized a second man who had been lolling in
the background against a crowded dresser.

"Hullo, Ben!" she said, and the colour deepened in her cheeks.

She and Ben Travers had once been very good friends. There had been a
time when she had seriously contemplated taking him on trial as a
sweetheart, but her friendship with Faith had put an end to it all,
though Ben had never forgiven her, and Peg knew it well enough.

The last time she had seen him had been the day when Forrester came to
admit his