"Miss Lutwyche and I are old friends," said Mr. Helston pleasantly. "We made the voyage from Africa together. Have I the pleasure of speaking to Mrs. Cooper?"
Tommy, blushing, disclaimed the honour, explained her identity, and shook hands with young Burmester. Freshfield, meanwhile, slipped round to Gwen behind the backs of the party.
"I know something of Mayne, Miss Lutwyche's guardian," said Mr. Helston in explanation; "and at his request my wife and I undertook the serious task of keeping this young person in order for the voyage." He did not add that he had himself paid the difference between first and second-class fare for her. "After her being so cruelly mishandled," he said, "you may imagine she needed care. She was not really fit to travel, but she was so eager to be off." He smiled down at her. "I think she looks a little different," he concluded quite fondly, "from what she did when we first took her in hand."
"But you have not said yet how you got here?" urged Millie, who was holding, in both hers, the hand that hung over her shoulder.
"Why, the very day you left us I ran up against Burmester in Pall Mall, and he said, 'Come down for a week's shooting,' and when we realised that Ilberston is, as it were, next door to Fransdale, you may imagine that we were doubly minded to come. Well, here we are! And how do you like England?"
"If by England you mean Fransdale," said Millie, "I like it in a way that can't be put in words."
"Oh, yes, it can be put in words; the thing's been done. You should read the works of one William Wordsworth," struck in Lance Burmester.
Millie raised her eyes to his face> and apparently liked what she found there.
"Should I? I will," she said thoughtfully.
"What have you done to your arm?" asked the young man kindly.