other hands. Doubtless Miss Marsh's name would be found on the books of
several years back, but it was not familiar to the new director.
However, they would, of course, be pleased to put themselves at Miss
Marsh's service. If she would be good enough to give them an early call,
bringing any and all references she might have, etc., etc.

Miss Marsh tore the note into tiny fragments. The agency could wait,
everything could wait, for the moment. She must have her fling, the
first taste of freedom in all these years. After that----!




CHAPTER V


October had come. Nora was no longer in the comfortable little hotel to
which the doctor's wife had sent her. Early in July she had thought it
wiser to seek cheaper quarters where breakfast was not 'included.' Every
penny must be counted now, and by combining breakfast and lunch late in
the morning she found she could do quite well until night, besides
saving an appreciable sum for the end of the week, when her room must be
paid for.

The summer had been one long nightmare of heat. It had been years
according to all accounts since the unhappy Londoners had so sweltered
beneath the scorching rays of an almost tropic sun. Often, when tossing
on her little bed or when seated by her small window which gave on a
sort of court, with the forlorn hope of finding some air stirring, had
she thought with longing of the pleasant garden at Tunbridge Wells and