"No, I won't be selfish, dear," she said gently. "You would hate it; you
are at home here, and you have all you want. There you would be unhappy
and uncomfortable; but I do thank you very, very gratefully."

"But you can't go alone, child. Why bless me, there's my niece Helen
Everard. She's a widow, her husband's people live close to Starden at
Buddesby. If only for a time, let me arrange with her to go with you."

"If you like," she said.

"I'll write to her at once," the General said, and Joan nodded, little
dreaming what the sending of that letter might mean to her.




CHAPTER XIV

THE BEGINNING OF THE TRAIL


For a while the unrighteous may bask in the sunshine of prosperity, but
there comes a time of reckoning, more especially in the City of London,
and things were at this moment shaping ill for Mr. Philip Slotman.

He stood at the door of the general office and surveyed his clerks.
There were five of them; at the end of the week there would be but two,
he decided. Next week probably there would be only one.

"Hello, Slotman!" It was a business acquaintance, who had dropped in to