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The Prince is co by the one-forty-five That means he’ll be here in time for tea Well, I do call that nice!’

No answer being made to this re: ‘I’entleman, if you knohat I mean’

Miss Cliffe raised her eyes from her own correspondence ‘Sorry, Aunt Er The Prince – oh yes! Then the big car will be wanted to meet the train I’ll see to it’

‘Yes, do, dearie’ Mrs Carter restored the Prince’s letter to its envelope, and stretched out a plue woolden hair and a pink-and-white coes with both these adjuncts, but a lavish use of peroxide and the productions of a faold of Ermyntrude’s carefully waved hair was a trifle metallic, the colour in her cheeks was all and ht was kinder to her than the daylight, but she never allowed this tireso with a lavish yet skilled hand which recalled the days when she had adorned the front row of the chorus; and touching up her lashes withmoments) with a species of vivid blue that was supposed to deepen the perfectly natural blue of her eyes

The exigencies of this facial toilet apparently exhausted her y, for she never put on her corsets until fortified by breakfast, and invariably appeared in the dining-rooligé Mary Cliffe, who had never been able to accusto sleeves trailing negligently across the butter-dishes, and occasionally, if Er into her coffee, had once suggested, with perfect tact, that she really ought to stay in bed for breakfast But Ermyntrude was of a cheerful and a sociable disposition, and liked to preside over the breakfast-table, and to discover ere her family’s plans for the day

Mary Cliffe, who addressed her by the title of aunt, was not, in fact, her niece, but the cousin, and ward, of her husband, Wallis Carter She was a good-looking young woreat deal of common sense, and a tidiness of mind which years of association with Wally Carter had only served to strengthen She was fond of Wally, in a mild way, but she was not in the least blind to his faults, and had not suffered even a s of jealousy when, five years before, he had, rather surprisingly, married Ermyntrude Fanshawe The possession of a small but securely tied-up income of her own had ensured her education at a respectable boarding-school, but her holidays, owing to Wally’s nomadic tendencies and frequent insolvencies, had been spent in a succession of dingy boarding-houses, and enlivened only by the calls of creditors, and the recurrent dread that Wally would succumb to the attractions of one or other of his landladies When, during a brief period of coe hotel at a fashionable watering-place, and had had the luck to captivate Ermyntrude Fanshaas an extrearded his e as providential Erar, but she was good-natured, and extre the existence of her husband’s young ward, behaved to her with the ut Wally’s roof to earn her own living If Mary wanted to work, she said, she could act as her secretary at Palings, and perhaps help with the housekeeping ‘Besides, dearie, you’ll be a real nice companion for my Vicky,’ she added

This had seeh, when she irl, five years her junior, she could not feel that they were destined to become soul-mates

Vicky, however, was being educated, at immense expense, first at a fashionable school on the south coast of England, and later at a stillthe last two years, she had spent her holidays abroad with Ermyntrude, so that Mary had hardly encountered her Her education was now considered to be co at home, a source of pride and joy to her mother, but not precisely an ideal companion for Mary, as alternately amused and exasperated by her

She reflected, on this war, that the presence of a Russian prince in the house would be productive of all Vicky’swhether the Prince were young

‘Well, I wouldn’t say young,’ replied Er herself to e, if you knohat I uished – and then his land, not that I’m one to run down my own country, but there it is’

‘I don’t like Russians much,’ said Mary perversely ‘They always seem to talk so much and do so little’

‘You shouldn’t be narrow-minded, dear Besides, he isn’t actually a Russian, as I’ve told you a dozen tiian – he used to have a lovely estate in the Caucasus, which is somewhere near the Black Sea, I believe’

At this moment the door opened, and Wally Carter caood-looking in youth, but who had run rather badly to seed His blue eyes were inclined to be bloodshot, and his ed a little In the days when he had courted Er liquor had not made him quite careless of appearances, but five years spent in opulent circumstances had caused him to deteriorate lamentably He was naturally slovenly, and his clothes never seeenerally aood deal, not in any bad-te way to which none of his fahtest heed

‘Here you are, then!’ said his wife, by way of greeting ‘Touch the bell, Mary, there’s a love! We couldn’t have had a better day, could we, Wally? Though, of course, as I always say, to see Palings at its best you ought to see it when the rhododendrons are out’

‘Who wants to see it??

? inquired Wally, casting a lack-lustre glance towards the

‘Now, Wally! As though you didn’t knoell as I do that the Prince is co today!’

This reminder seemed to set the seal to Wally’s dissatisfaction He lowered the newspaper behind which he had entrenched himself ‘Not that fellow you picked up at Antibes?’ he said