end of this. His dinner put back so that she may continue her
flirtation with Meason! I shall have to tell the truth. Why should I
tell a lie?"

"Please, miss," said the butler as Maggie passed through the baize
door, "I think it right to tell you about cook. We find it very hard
to put up with her in the servants' hall. She is a very violent-
tempered woman; nor can I say much for her in other respects. Last
week she sold twenty pounds of dripping, and it wasn't all dripping,
miss, it was for the most part butter."

"John, I really can't listen to any more stories about cook. Has the
quarter-to-seven come in yet?"

"I haven't seen it pass, miss, but I saw Mr. Willy coming up the drive
a minute ago."

Willy entered, and she turned to him and said: "Where have you been
to, Willy?"

"Brighton. Has father come in yet?"

"No. You came by the tramcar?"

"Yes."

With shoulders set well back and toes turned out, Willy came along the
passage. His manner was full of deliberation, and he carried a small
brown paper parcel under his arm as if it were a sword of state.
Maggie followed him up the steep and vulgarly carpeted staircase that