all be downstairs for it." And when they had obeyed her, she
turned to her elder son, who still stood in the throbbing
stinking car, and smiled at him with tenderness, and without
a word, turned away from him towards her flowers.

"Mother," he called, "are you aware that Paul has been
playing the fool again?"

"It's all right, dear. They have broken off the engagement."

"Engagement--!"

"They do not love any longer, if you prefer it put that
way," said Mrs. Wilcox, stooping down to smell a rose.


Chapter 4

Helen and her aunt returned to Wickham Place in a state of
collapse, and for a little time Margaret had three invalids
on her hands. Mrs. Munt soon recovered. She possessed to a
remarkable degree the power of distorting the past, and
before many days were over she had forgotten the part played
by her own imprudence in the catastrophe. Even at the
crisis she had cried, "Thank goodness, poor Margaret is
saved this!" which during the journey to London evolved
into, "It had to be gone through by someone," which in its
turn ripened into the permanent form of "The one time I
really did help Emily's girls was over the Wilcox
business." But Helen was a more serious patient. New ideas