dear, are
you? I can't believe it's true!"

"It was Geoff's doing! He saw I was fretting for you, and suggested
that we should come to town and stay over the New Year at an hotel.
There was not time to get the house ready. A whole week, Bridgie!
Won't we talk! There are such oceans of things to tell you. Baby is
beginning to speak!"

"The precious mite!" Bridgie disentangled one hand and held it towards
her brother-in-law in beaming welcome. "I always did say you were a
broth of a boy, Geoffrey, but you have eclipsed yourself this time. I
am so happy I don't know how to bear it. Now Christmas will be
something like Christmas, and--" she smiled encouragingly into Sylvia's
embarrassed face,--"we have a visitor staying with us to make things
still more festive. My new friend, Miss Sylvia Trevor, who is
recovering from a long illness."

Esmeralda wheeled round to face the sofa and stared at the stranger with
haughty scrutiny. Her flowing skirts seemed to fill the little room;
her cloak was thrown back, showing a glimpse of costly sable lining; her
imperious beauty made her appear older than the gentle Bridgie, a
hundred times more formidable. The formal bend of the head brought with
it an acute sense of discomfiture to the recipient. For the first time
since crossing that hospitable threshold she realised that she was a
solitary unit, a stranger set down in the midst of an affectionate
family party, and if it had not been for the crippling foot, she would
have rushed away to the haven of the room upstairs. As it was, however,
she was condemned to lie still and return Esmeralda's commonplaces with
what grace she might.

"I am pleased to see you," said Esmeralda's tongue. "What a nuisance
you are!" said the flash of the cold grey eyes. "Such a pleasure for
Bridgie to have a friend." "But now that I have arrived, you are not
wanted any longer, and are terribly in my way!" One set of phrases were
as intelligible as the other to the sensitive invalid, and if
Esmeralda's anticipations were dashed by her presence, she herself
abandoned all prospect of enjoyment, and only longed to be able to
return home forthwith.

Bridgie would not need her companionship any longer; she could be but a
restraint and kill-joy in the conferences of newly-united sisters. She
stared dismally at the floor, then looked up to see Jack carrying the
tea-table bodily across the room and setting it down by her couch.
Sarah had brou