step-mother had
been agonised at the thought of trusting her to a man--and so very young
a man--who had made such a failure of his life. That he was going out to
Australia practically penniless--nay, worse than penniless, saddled with
debts of so-called honour--had been, or so they had judged at the time,
entirely his own fault.

John Tosswill, who had a very clear and acute mind when any abstract
question was under discussion, had told Betty plainly that she would only
be a dangerous hindrance to a man situated as Radmore would be situated
in a new country, and she had submitted to her father's judgment.

But how ironical are the twists and turns of life! If only they had known
what the future was to bring forth, how differently Betty's father and
step-mother would have acted! Yet now to-day, Janet tried to tell herself
that Betty had had a happy escape. Godfrey had been like a bull in the
net during those painful days nine years ago. He had shown himself
utterly unreasonable, and especially angry, nay enraged, with her, Janet,
because he had been foolish enough to hope that she would take his part
against Betty's father.

* * * * *

Acting on a sudden impulse, she went upstairs, and, feeling a little
ashamed of what she was doing, went into the room which was to be Godfrey
Radmore's. Then she walked across to where stood Timmy's play-box, in
order to find the letter which Betty's one-time lover had written to his
godson.

The play-box had been George's play-box in the days of his preparatory
school, and it still had his name printed across it.

She turned up the wooden lid. Everything in the box was very tidy, for
Timmy was curiously grown-up in some of his ways, and so she very soon
found the letter she was seeking for.

It was a quaint, humorous epistle--the letter of a man who feels quite
sure of himself, and yet as she read it through rapidly, there rose
before her the writer as he had last appeared in a railing whirlwind
of rage and fury, just before leaving Old Place--he had vowed at the
time--for ever. She remembered how he had shouted at her, hurling bitter
reproaches, telling her she would be sorry one day for having persuaded
Betty to give him up. But though she, Janet Tosswill, had not forgotten,
he had evidently made up his mind, the moment he had met with his
unexpected and astonishing piece of good luck, to let bygones be bygones.
For, after that first letter to hi