"Oh, the horror of it!--the shame, the agonized surprise"

"'This is one of those rare occasions ... where goodness is ... amply
rewarded'"

"'I want to confess! I've been horribly depraved for a week!'"

"She dropped him a very low, very slow, very marvellous courtesy"

"Crumpled up like a white flower in his arms"




CHAPTER I

THE SEAGRAVES


All day Sunday they had raised the devil from attic to cellar; Mrs.
Farren was in tears, Howker desperate. Not one out of the fifteen
servants considered necessary to embellish the Seagrave establishment
could do anything with them after Kathleen Severn's sudden departure the
week before.

When the telegram announcing her mother's sudden illness summoned young
Mrs. Severn to Staten Island, every servant in the household understood
that serious trouble was impending for them.

Day by day the children became more unruly; Sunday they were demons; and