d him say as if to himself: "Some people are glad. Mrs. George
Pott"--the woman who kept the local beer-shop--"danced when _her_ husband
died."

"I wish, Timmy," said his mother sharply, "that you would not listen to,
or repeat low village gossip."

"Not even if it's true, Mum?"

"No, not even if it's true."

When Janet had first come to Old Place as a bride, eager to shoulder what
some of her friends had told her would be an almost intolerable burden,
her husband's six children had been a sad, subdued, nursery-brought-up
group, infinitely pathetic to her warm Scotch heart. At once she had
instituted, rather to the indignation of the old nurse who was yet to
become in due time her devoted henchwoman, a daily dining-room tea, and
the custom still persisted.

And now, to Timmy's surprise, his mother opened the drawing-room door
instead of going on to the dining-room. "Tell Betty," she said abruptly,
"to pour out tea. I'll come on presently."

She shut the door, and going over to the roomy old sofa, sat down, and
leaning back, closed her eyes. It was a very unusual thing for her to
do, but she felt tired, and painfully excited at the thought of Godfrey
Radmore's coming visit. And as she lay there, there rose up before her,
wearily and despondently, the changes which nine years had brought to Old
Place.

Janet Tosswill, like all intelligent step-mothers, sometimes speculated
as to what her predecessor had really been like. Her husband's elder
children were so amazingly unlike one another, as well as utterly unlike
her own son Timmy.

Betty, the eldest of her step-children, was her favourite, and she had
also been deeply attached to Betty's twin-brother, George. The two had
been alike in many ways, though Betty was very feminine and George
essentially masculine, and each of them had possessed those special
human attributes which only War seems to bring to full fruition.

George had been out in France seven months when he had been killed at
Beaumont Hamel, and he had already won a bar to his Military Cross by an
action which in any other campaign would have given him the Victoria
Cross. As for Betty, she had shown herself extraordinarily brave, cool,
and resourceful when after doing some heavy home war work, she had gone
out with one of the units of the Scottish Women's Hospital.

But Janet Tosswill admired and loved the girl more than ever since
Betty had come back, from what had perforce been a full and exciting