party, and whether the people had stayed late.
"Mrs. Tregent stayed after the others. She spoke very kindly of you."
The girl looked at her father with an anxiety that showed through her smile. "What did she say?"
He hesitated, as Vera had done a moment before. "That you must be our compensation."
His daughter's eyes, still wondering, turned away. "What did she mean?"
"That it's all right, darling!" And he supplied the deficiencies of this explanation with a long kiss for goodnight. The next day he went to see Mrs. Tregent, who wore the air of being glad to have something at once positive and pleasant to say. She announced immediately that Arthur was coming back.
"I congratulate you." Then, as they exchanged one of their looks of unreserved recognition, Maurice added: "Now it's for Vera and me to go."
"To go?"
