Early in July they did start homeward, but by so circuitous a route, and with such prolonged stops at the famous hotels of Canada, that it was on a September afternoon that they found themselves taking the Toland household by storm.  And Julia thought no experience in her travels so sweet as this one:  to be received into the heart of the family, and to settle down to a review of the past five months.  Richie was so brotherly and kind, the girls so admiring of her furs and her diamonds, so full of gay chatter, the old doctor so gallant and so affectionate!  Mrs. Toland chirped and twittered like the happy mother of a cageful of canaries; and Julia, when they gathered about the fire after dinner, took a low stool next to Miss Toland’s chair and rested a shoulder, little-girl fashion, against the older woman’s knee.

“It was simply a tour of triumph for Ju,” said Doctor Jim, packing his pipe at the fireplace, with satisfied eyes on his wife.  “She has friends in the Ghetto and friends in the White House.  We went down to the Duponts’, on Long Island, and Dupont said she—­”

“Oh, please, Jim!” Julia said seriously.

“Dupont said she was one of the most interesting women he ever talked to,” Jim continued inexorably, “and John Mandrake wanted to paint her!”

“Tell me the news!” begged Julia.  “How’s The Alexander, Aunt Sanna—­how is Miss Striker turning out?”

“She’s turned out,” said Miss Toland grimly, her knitting needles flashing steadily.  “She came to me with her charts and rules, and oh, she couldn’t lie in bed after half-past six in the morning, and she couldn’t put off the sewing class, and she would like to ask me not to eat my breakfast after nine o’clock!  A girl who never cared what she ate—­sardines and tea!—­and she wouldn’t come in with me to dinner at the Colonial because she was afraid they used coal tar and formaldehyde—­ha!  Finally she asked me if I wouldn’t please keep the expenditures of the house and my own expenditures separate, and that was the end!”

Jim’s great laugh burst out, and Julia dimpled as she asked demurely: 

“What on earth did you say?”

“Say?  I asked her if she knew I built The Alexander, and sent her packing!  And now”—­Miss Toland rubbed her nose with the gesture Julia knew so well—­“now Miss Pierce is temporarily in charge, but she won’t stay there nights, so the clubs are given up,” she observed discontentedly.

“And what’s the news from Sally?” Julia pursued.

“Just the loveliest in the world,” Mrs. Toland said.  “Keith is working like a little Trojan; and Sally sent us a perfectly charming description of the pension, and their walks—­”

“Yes, and how she couldn’t go out because she hadn’t shoes,” Jane added, half in malice, half in fun.  “Don’t look so shocked, Mother dear, you know it’s true.  And the landlady cheating them out of a whole week’s board—­”