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take care of him.—His servants are fond of him. He s that sort of person. I begin to see what mother used to mean when she said he was endearing, in spite of everything.’

‘In spite of what?’ Monica asked.

‘Well, I’m afraid Uncle Godfrey has been rather a bad lot. It’s just as well you should know it if you are going to be kind to him,’ said Norah. ‘And anyway you are almost sure to hear about it—since he had to leave the army because of it.’

‘Because of it! Oh, poor man!—In what sense a bad lot?’ She could not associate Captain Ingpen with anything disgraceful; only with things dangerous and difficult. Norah’s words inflicted an odd blow on her heart.

‘Oh—just in the usual sense; about women. He started his career by a love-affair with his Colonel’s wife in India, years ago; and it all came out and there was an awful row and he was permitted to retire;—that’s the proper expression I think. Of course I was too young to hear anything about it; it’s only from what mother has said; because Mrs. Ingpen was a friend of hers. They got married after her husband divorced her. I remember great family wrangles because father wouldn’t let mother ask her to stay. You know what a darling mother would be