"You shall go nowhere you don't want to, Isobel. Arnold and I will see to that."
"And—about the other thing—she mentioned," Isobel began.
"She was right and wrong," I answered. "Of course, it would be better for you if one of us had a sister or a mother living with us, but Mrs. Burdett has always seemed to us like a mother, and I think—that it will be all right," I concluded a little lamely. "We need not worry about that, at present at any rate. Come, we've had a dull afternoon, and I sold a story yesterday. Let's go to Fasolas, and have a half-crown dinner."
"I'm on," Arthur declared. "We'll go and fetch Allan."
"You dear!" Isobel exclaimed. "I shall wear my new hat!"
Book II
CHAPTER I
"I have no doubt," Mabane said gloomily, "that Arthur is right. He ought to know more about it than old fogies like you and me, Arnold. We had the money, and we ought to have insisted upon it. You gave way far too easily."