And, I think, no one who could have seen her preparing his second cup

of tea would have disputed that in making this exception he acted with

a show of reason. For Margaret Hugonin--but, as you know, she is

our heroine, and, as I fear you have already learned, words are very

paltry makeshifts when it comes to describing her. Let us simply say,

then, that Margaret, his daughter, began to make him a cup of tea, and

add that she laughed.

Not unkindly; no, for at bottom she adored her father--a comely

Englishman of some sixty-odd, who had run through his wife's fortune

and his own, in the most gallant fashion--and she accorded his