week. I've got a lot of work on hand just now. I suppose, my dear," he
suggested doubtfully, "that you wouldn't be able to run over with her?"

Lady Byrne declared that it was impossible for her to do so: she had
engagements, she said, for every day of the following week, which it was
out of the question to break. Had Sir Arthur forgotten that they
themselves were having large dinner-parties on Tuesday and Friday? What
she would do without Juliet to help her in preparing for them, she did
not know, but at least it was obvious that some one must be there to
receive his guests. No, Juliet would have to go alone. She was really old
enough to be trusted by herself for three days, and there was no need,
that she could see, for her to be away longer.

"She can go on Monday, see the lawyers on Tuesday, and come back on
Wednesday," said Lady Byrne. "The helplessness of young girls is the one
thing I disapprove of in your European system of education. It is much
better that they should learn to manage their own affairs; and Juliet is
not such a ninny as you seem to think."

"I shall be perfectly all right by myself," Juliet protested.

Sir Arthur did not like it.

"Supposing she is detained in London," he said.

"What should detain her," demanded his wife, "unless it is the discovery
of her parents? And, if she finds them, I presume they will be capable of
looking after her. In any case, she can write, or cable to us when she
has seen the solicitors, and it is no use providing for contingencies
that will probably never arise."