No reply came from within the hood.

’Mother says you aren’t going back to America just yet, are you, Mr. Twemlow?’ Milly screamed in her treble.

Arthur Twemlow showed his face.  ‘No, not yet, I think,’ he called.  ’See you again, certainly....  And thanks once more.’

‘Tchick!’ said Carpenter.

* * * * *

The next evening, after tea, John, Leonora, and Rose were in the drawing-room.  Milly had run down to see her friend Cissie Burgess, having with fine cruelty chosen that particular night because she happened to know that Harry would be out.  Ethel was invisible.  Rose had returned with bitter persistence to the siege of her father’s obstinacy.

‘I should have six weeks clear,’ she was saying.

John consulted his pocket-calendar.

‘No,’ he corrected her, ’you would only have a month.  It isn’t worth while.’

‘I should have six weeks,’ she repeated.  ’The exam isn’t till January the seventh.’

‘But Christmas, what about Christmas?  You must be here for Christmas.’

‘Why?’ demanded Rose.

‘Oh, Rosie!’ Leonora protested.’  You can’t be away for Christmas!’

‘Why not?’ the girl demanded again, coldly.

Both parents paused.

‘Because you can’t,’ said John angrily.  ‘The idea’s absurd.’

‘I don’t see it,’ Rose persevered.

‘Well, I do,’ John delivered himself.  ‘And let that suffice.’

Rose’s face indicated the near approach of tears.

It was at this juncture that Bessie opened the door and announced Mr. Twemlow.

‘I just called to bring back that magnificent great-coat,’ he said.  ‘It’s hanging up on its proper hook in the hall.’

Then he turned specially to Leonora, who sat isolated near the fire.  She was not surprised to see him, because she had felt sure that he would at once return the overcoat in person; she had counted on him doing so.  As he came towards her she languorously lifted her arm, without rising, and the two bangles which she wore slipped tinkling down the wide sleeve.  They shook hands in silence, smiling.

‘I hope you didn’t take cold last night?’ she said at length.

‘Not I,’ he replied, sitting down by her side.

He was quick to detect the disturbance in the social atmosphere, and though he tried to appear unconscious of it, he did not succeed in the impossible.  Moreover, Rose had evidently decided that despite his presence she would finish what she had begun.

‘Very well, father,’ she said.  ’If you’ll let me go at once I’ll come down for two days at Christmas.’

‘Yes,’ John grumbled, ’that’s all very well.  But who’s to take you?  You can’t go alone.  And you know perfectly well that I only came back yesterday.’  He recited this fact precisely as though it constituted a grievance against Rose.

‘As if I couldn’t go alone!’ Rose exclaimed.