“I shall be here a long time and we shall always be the best of friends,” murmured Mavis, as she pressed the affectionate animal to her heart.

Mavis waited half an hour in the drawing-room before anyone came.

Victoria was the first to join her; she entered the room with a frank smile, together with an apology for having kept Mavis waiting.  The latter took to Miss Devitt at once, congratulating herself on her good fortune at the prospect of living with such congenial companions as Miss Devitt and the dog.  Victoria explained that her brother’s illness was responsible for Mavis having been treated with apparent neglect.

“I am so sorry,” replied Mavis.  “Is it serious?”

“Not at present, but it may be.”

“How dreadful it must be for you, who love him!”

“We are all of us used to seeing my brother more or less ill; he has been a cripple for the last eight years.”

“How very sad!  But if your brother is worse, why didn’t you wire and put me off?”

“You would have been disappointed if we had.”

“I should have understood.”

Then, after making further sympathetic reference to Harold’s condition, Mavis said: 

“What a dear dog this is!  Is he yours?”

“It’s Harold’s.  She’s no business to be in here.  She’ll dirty your dress.”

“I don’t mind in the least.”

“Let me turn her out,” said Victoria, as she rose from her seat.

“Please don’t.  I love to have her with me,” pleaded Mavis, adding, as Victoria acceded to her request: 

“Don’t you like dogs?”

“In their proper place.  Jill wouldn’t be allowed in at all if Harold didn’t sometimes wish it.”

“If I had a house, it should be full of dogs,” remarked Mavis.

“I understand that you were born near here.”

“Yes, at Melkbridge Court.”

“I don’t know what time you go back, but, after luncheon—­of course you’ll stay—­you might take the opportunity of your being down here to have a look at the old place.”

“I—­I might,” faltered Mavis, who suddenly felt as if all the happiness had been taken out of her life; for Miss Devitt’s words hinted that her family was not going to keep Mavis at Melkbridge House.

She looked regretfully at the dog, then inquiringly at Victoria, when Mrs Devitt came into the drawing-room.

Her eyes at once fell on Mavis’s comeliness; looking at her step-daughter, she found herself comparing the appearance of the two girls.  Before she had offered her hand to Mavis, she had decided that, beside her, Victoria appeared at a disadvantage.

Although Mavis’s hair and colouring might only appeal to a certain order of taste, the girl’s distinction, to which one of the Miss Mees had alluded earlier in the day, was glaringly patent to Mrs Devitt’s sharp eyes; beside this indefinable personal quality, Mrs Devitt observed with a shudder, Victoria seemed middle-class.  Mavis’s fate, as far as the Devitts were concerned, was decided in the twinkling of an eye.  For all this decision, so suddenly arrived at, Mrs Devitt greeted Mavis kindly; indeed, the friendliness that she displayed caused the girl’s hopes to rise.