If a few moments of pleasure are worth purchasing at a cost of many
hours of crowded disappointment, it was as well that Mavis was
ignorant of the way in which her prospects had been prejudiced by
the trend of events at Melkbridge House since Mrs Devitt had replied
to Miss Mee's letter. To begin with, Mavis's visit had been within
an ace of being indefinitely postponed; it was owing to Harold's
expressed wish that the original appointment had been allowed to
stand. The reason for this indifference to Mavis's immediate future
was that, the day after the schoolmistress had written, Harold had
been seriously indisposed. His symptoms were so alarming that his
doctor had insisted on having a further opinion; this was obtained
from a Bathminster physician, who had confirmed the local medical
man's diagnosis; he had also advised Harold a month's rest on his
back, this to be followed by a nine months' residence abroad. As if
this were not enough to interfere with Mavis's visit, Montague
Devitt had met young Sir Archibald Windebank, the bachelor owner of
Haycock. Abbey, when going to discharge his duties as borough
magistrate, the performance of which he believed might ease his mind
of the pain occasioned by his son's illness.

After he had told Windebank his bad news, and the latter had
expressed his genuine concern, Devitt had said:

"Do you remember Keeves--Colonel Keeves?"

"Of Melkbridge Court? Of course. Why?"

"I heard something of his daughter the other day."

"Little Mavis!"