"Oh, I shall manage quite well," said Mr. Beauchamp cheerfully. "It is
rather a bore being kept in London, of course, away from you and the
chicks"--this came as an afterthought--"but I hope you will find it plane
sailing. I want it to be a _real_ rest to you, old woman."

His eyes wandered past her sweet, tired face to the fair and dark heads
beyond, of which she was the proud possessor, and his sigh was not
altogether a sigh of disappointment. Mrs. Beauchamp glanced at them too,
and the anxious line deepened between her eyes. She pushed back with a
cool hand the loose hair on her forehead. "It is an ideal place for
children," she said--"sand and shells; and they can bathe from the
lodgings."

"You will be good to your mother, boys," said Mr. Beauchamp. He was
directly appealing to Tommy, but he included the whole family in his
sweeping glance. "Don't overpower her.--And, Susie, you are the eldest;
you must be an example."

Susie flounced out her ridiculously short skirts with a triumphant look
round. "I _am_ a help, aren't I, mother?" she said.

"Sometimes, dear," said her mother, with rather a tired smile.

"And you won't bother about me, Christina?" he said.

"How can I help it, darling?"

She leant farther out of the window, but one hand held firmly to Amy's
slim black legs--Amy had scrambled up on to the seat, and was pushing the
packages in the rack here and there, searching for something.