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twice and sank upon a convenient bench. Her heels drummed upon the floor and she moaned pitiously.

“The bottle of smelling-salts is broken, my dear,” Mr. Langham reminded her as he returned to the window.

The old friends gathered around their fallen leader and obscured her from the mocking gaze of the brazen creature who stood regarding them.

In a moment they were thrown aside with violence as Mrs. Langham fairly bounced to her feet and confronted her tormentor.

“I suppose,” she shrieked, forgetting her culture and aspirations in this moment of supreme anger, “you didn’t move into the Harley house, bag and baggage, last Tuesday? I suppose you didn’t clean up the house, make all the beds, do the washing-up and have tea with Harley? I suppose you didn’t intend to stay there—knowing you had driven his wife and child away?”

“And I suppose you don’t know that I am capable of putting you in the dock on a charge of criminal slander, Mrs. Langham?” returned Patricia icily.

“You would never dare!” breathed Mrs. Langham aghast, the colour leaving her cheeks, her eyes starting in affright.

“You dared me to strike you a moment since,” Patricia reminded her quietly. “I have no social standing that I should be afraid of any dare, Mrs. Langham. As sure as God made you, I’ll have you in the criminal court if I hear another whisper on this matter from you! My life is my own to live as it pleases me. I will not be subject to a tuppeny-ha’penny social climber such as you!”

There was a dead stillness in the room for a second, then Patricia turned away and moved towards her packing-case.

“That is the end of Round Two,” she said. “Now, is there anything else you wished packed with this stuff?”