“It must have been real edifying for Lady Carfax,” drawled Nap.

Mrs. Errol turned upon him.  “I’m no bigger a fool than I look, Nap Errol.  Lady Carfax didn’t hear a word.  We had it out in the park.  I left the motor half way on purpose, and made his high mightiness walk down with me.  He was pretty near speechless by the time I’d done with him, but he did just manage at parting to call me an impertinent old woman.  And I called him—­a gentleman!”

Mrs. Errol paused to swallow her second cup of tea.

“I was wheezing myself by that time,” she concluded.  “But I’d had my say, and I don’t doubt that he is now giving the matter his full and careful attention, which after all is the utmost I can expect.  It may not do dear Anne much good, but I guess it can’t do her much harm anyway, and it was beer and skittles to me.  Why, it’s five weeks now since she left, and she’s only been over once in all that time, and then I gather there was such a row that she didn’t feel like facing another till she was quite strong again.”

“An infernal shame!” declared Bertie hotly.  “I’ll drive you over myself to-morrow to fetch her.  We’ll get up some sports in her honour.  I wonder if she likes tobogganing.”

“I wonder if she will come,” murmured Nap.

Mrs. Errol turned to her third cup.  “She’ll come,” she said with finality; and no one raised any further question on that point.  Mrs. Errol in certain moods was known to be invincible.

Though it was nearly the middle of March, the land was fast held in the grip of winter.  There had been a heavy fall of snow, and a continuous frost succeeding it had turned Baronmead into an Alpine paradise.  Tobogganing and skating filled the hours of each day; dancing made fly the hours of each night.  Bertie had already conducted one ice gymkhana with marked success, and he was now contemplating a masquerade on the ornamental sheet of water that stretched before the house.  Strings of fairy lights were being arranged under his directions, and Chinese lanterns bobbed in every bush.

He was deeply engrossed in these preparations, but he tore himself away to drive his mother to the Manor on the following morning.  His alacrity to do this was explained when he told her that he wanted to drop into the Rectory and persuade the rector to bring Dot that night to see the fun, to which plan Mrs. Errol accorded her ready approval, and even undertook to help with the persuading, to Bertie’s immense gratification.  He and his mother never talked confidences, but they understood each other so thoroughly that words were superfluous.

So they departed both in excellent spirits, while Lucas leaning upon Nap’s shoulder, went down to the lake to watch the skaters and to superintend Bertie’s preparations for the evening’s entertainment.

The voices of the tobogganists reached them from a steep bit of ground half-a-mile away, ringing clearly on the frosty air.