I am afraid I ought not to let you talk any longer. I heard mother
go into her dressing-room ten minutes ago, and she is never long
over her toilet."

"That means I must get into my war paint too, or Dawson will be
coming in search of me;" and then he went off to his old room,
leaving Anna looking thoughtfully out of the window.

"To-morrow I shall be one-and-twenty," she said to herself; "it
seems a great age, but Malcolm is nearly nine years older." And then
she added to herself in a whisper, "And from morning to night we
shall be together, just he and I, our own two selves," and there was
a soft look of contentment on Anna's face.




CHAPTER V

MRS. HERRICK OBJECTS TO BOHEMIA


We fear originality as a coat which is too new, and do
our utmost to be like the rest of the world.--CARMEN
SYLVA.

Life is work.... Life without work is unworthy of being
lived.--BISHOP EDWARD BICKERSTETH.

Twenty minutes later Malcolm knocked at the door of his mother's