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Ann realized that she must not count on such good results during the next month or two; but she had secured an excellent circle of customers, and had no doubts as to the future.

All business premises would be closed as usual from 11:30 A.M. for the Turf Club races—no one in Wairiri thought of working on race days—and when Mrs. Ralston invited Ann to go out with them in their car, the newly-established milliner was very pleased to accept the invitation.

Her establishment, like the others, would be shut, and she would have the whole day on her hands.

So on the morning of the Turf Club Meeting, she put on her prettiest summer frock, and a special and most becoming “model,” and made her way down to the Imperial to join the Ralstons. Motor cars full of gayly dressed women were speeding through the streets; motor lorries with seats roughly arranged, and placarded with printed posters: “To the race course and back, 3s. 6d.”, were proceeding more slowly in order to pick up intending passengers; boys were shouting at street corners: “Card of the races—one shilling”; and there was a general air of gayety and expectancy about the passers-by. The wide roadway lay hot in the brilliant glare of the morning sunshine, under a clear blue sky. Ann, walking along the veranda-covered pavement, past the line of closed, or closing shops, was glad to think she wore a wide hat, and carried a parasol. It would probably be about 90 degrees in the shade out at the racecourse. She was looking forward to a cheery, pleasantly exciting day after the grind of her hard work; and for the moment her heart-ache was forgotten. Then suddenly, with a rush it all came back, for advancing