Janet blushed.
"What a shame," she said, "to tell that story! Hester, I suppose that was you, in one of your letters."
"Yes," said Hester; "but, Janet darling, you told me always to tell all the news."
CHAPTER 23
THE MOST SURPRISING ADVENTURE OF ALL
The children had been back two or three days, and Kink was still on the road, when one morning a telegram came from him saying that he had reached Hounslow, and Robert asked if they might all walk out to meet him, and so return home triumphantly in a body. Mrs. Avory agreed, and they trooped off, after the briefest lunch, taking Horace Campbell and the Rotherams with them.
They had been gone two or three hours, and Mrs. Avory was sitting talking with Runcie, when Eliza Pollard brought a card on the brass tray that Janet had repoussed for her mother's last Christmas present. It ran:
MR. HENRY AMORY
The Red House,
Chiswick, W.
"I don't know him," said Mrs. Avory. "What is he like?"