Rupert Haverford was walking up the broad drive briskly, and Betty was dancing beside him.
Caroline studied him attentively for a time, then turned away from the window and laughed.
"How ridiculous I am!" she said to herself; "why on earth should I mind if she sneers at him or praises him? Assuredly it is no affair of mine."
Of course Betty went straight to her mother's room on entering the house, and after a while Miss Graniger went down to fetch both children.
She found Mrs. Lancing on the sofa with one little daughter crouched up beside her, and the other engaged in softly rubbing her brows.
"I wish I could go to bed," Camilla said. "I do hate these kind of family functions. And Agnes loves them."
There was a fretful tone in her voice.
"Poor mummy," said Betty, and stooping, she laid her pretty little lips on her mother's face.
Both children were so happy to be with her.
"Sit down and tell me all you have been doing since I saw you," commanded Mrs. Lancing. "How long have you been down here? It seems like a century to me."