be offered to him ere long. Dr Trevor was very proud of
his clever son, but the mother's face took on a wistful expression as
she looked round the table at her assembled family, and realised that
the time was close at hand for the stirring up of the nest. She was
unusually indulgent during those spring months, as if she could not find
it in her heart to deny any possible pleasure.

"We shall not long be together. Miles will be going away, and after
then--who knows?" she told herself sadly. "Once children begin to grow
up and go out into the world, one can never be sure of meeting again as
a complete family circle. Let them be happy while they may!"

So those spring months saw an unusual succession of gaieties in the
doctor's shabby house, in the shape of merry, informal gatherings, which
went far to cement newly-made friendships. Agatha and Christabel
Rendell returned home, only to be succeeded by the remaining three
sisters of the family, who proved quite as interesting in their various
ways. Dear good Maud was as sweet and placid as her own fat baby, while
Elsie was an intense young person, quite different from anyone else whom
Betty and Cynthia had ever encountered. Her hair was parted in the
middle and brushed smoothly over her ears; she wore quaintly
unfashionable garments, and--thrilling item of interest!--was engaged to
be married to a sub-editor of a magazine, who was reported to be even
more intense than herself. Elsie disdained the ordinary sign of
betrothal; a ring, she explained to the astonished girls, was a badge of
servitude to which no self-respecting woman should submit, and she wore
in its place a gold locket, bearing strange cabalistic signs, the
meaning of which the beholders vainly yearned to discover.

With regard to the future, Elsie and her editor announced their
intention of living "the higher life"--a high-sounding phrase which was
not a little impressive, until one heard the details thereof, which
scarcely appealed to the ordinary imagination. They were going to
subsist on a diet of bread and nuts, a regime which did away at one fell
swoop with the need of such superfluities as cook and kitchen; they
would have no curtains nor draperies, as woollens harbour microbes; no
wall-papers, as papers exude poisons; no ornaments, since it was a sin
to waste the precious hours in dusting what was of no use. What they
_were_ going to have, soon became the question in the minds of the
anxious