high cost. Every one went away from the Lovell sale well-pleased, except
the two whose fortunes were most intimately concerned--the son and daughter
of the dead man. They were left to face the problem of continued existence.

For the time being the circumstances of the war had acted as a solvent.
Robin, home on sick leave, had returned to the front, while Ann, who
possessed the faculty of getting the last ounce out of any car she handled,
very soon found warwork as a motor-driver. But, with the return of peace,
the question of pounds, shillings and pence had become more acute, and at
present Robin was undertaking any odd job that turned up pending the time
when he should find the ideal berth which would enable him to make a home
for Ann, while the latter, thanks to the good offices of Sir Philip
Brabazon, had for the last six months filled the post of
companion-chauffeuse to Lady Susan Hallett.

The entire six months had been passed at Mon Reve, Lady Susan's villa at
Montricheux, and with a jerk Ann emerged from her train of retrospective
thought to the realisation that her lines had really fallen in very
pleasant places, after all.

It seemed as though there were some truth in Lady Susan's assertion that
things had a way of working out all right in the end. But for her father's
mismanagement of his affairs--and the affairs of those dependent on
him--Ann recognised that she might very well have been still pursuing the
rather dull, uneventful life which obtained at Lovell Court, without the
prospect of any vital change or happening to relieve its tedium, whereas
the catastrophe which had once seemed to threaten chaos had actually opened
the door of the world to her.