o go to Africa. For Adelaide
would have taken him anywhere. Would Charmian bring back with her
something of the wonder of the East? Mrs. Mansfield felt for a moment as
if she were going to welcome a stranger in her child. The feeling
returned to her on the Thursday afternoon, when she was waiting for
Charmian's arrival in her writing-room.

Charmian was due at Charing Cross at three-twenty-five. She ought to be
in Berkeley Square about four, unless the train was very crowded, and
there was a long delay at the Customs. Four o'clock chimed from the
Dresden china clock on the mantelpiece, and she had not arrived. Mrs.
Mansfield was conscious of a restlessness almost amounting to
nervousness. She got up from her chair, laid down the book she had been
reading, and moved slowly about the room.

How would Charmian receive the news that Claude Heath was to dine with
them that night? Would she be too tired by the journey to dine? She was
a bad sailor. Perhaps the sea in the Channel had been rough. If so, she
would arrive not looking her best. Mrs. Mansfield had invited Heath
because she wished to be sure at the first possible moment whether
Charmian was in love with him or not. And she was positive that now,
consciously alert and suspicious, if she saw the two together even for a
short time she would know.

And if she knew that it was so, that Charmian had set her affections on
Heath--what then?

She resolved not to look beyond the day. But as the moments passed, and
she waited, her mind, like a thing beyond control, began to occupy
itself with that question. The distant hoot of a motor startled her.
Although their motor had a horn exactly the same as a thousand others
she knew at once that Charmian was entering the Square. Half a minute
later, standing in the doorway of her sitting-room, she heard the door
bell and the footsteps of Lassell, the butler. Impulsively she went to
the staircase.

"Charmian!" she called. "Charmian!"

"My only mother!" came up a voice from below.

She saw Charmian pushing up her veil over her three-cornered
travelling-hat with a bright red feather.

"Where are you? Oh, there!"

She came up the stairs.

"Such a crossing! I'm an unlucky girl! Remedies are no use. Dearest!"

She put two light hands on her mother's shoulders and kissed her twice
with lips which were rather cold. Her face was pale, and her eyes looked
unusually haggard and restless. An atmosphere of excitement seemed to
surr