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too. Isn’t that a sweet one? So becoming and so simple.”

This sort of thing went on most of the afternoon. A fair percentage of the eighty or ninety women present Ann had already met on the racecourse or had seen in her shop. They all belonged to the same set—the wives and daughters of the sheep-farmers, the lawyers, the doctors, and the bank managers. Ann was practically the only “trade” representative at the party. They took part in competitions, for which there were prizes, wandered round the garden, indulged in what the paper next day described as “social chat,” and ate an extraordinary large tea.

Ann discovered that at least one of these functions took place every week in Wairiri; and that all the same women attended each and every one. She wondered how the supply of “social chat” held out; and then suddenly with a deepening flush she remembered that she herself had probably supplied a good deal of it for the last one, and was supplying more for this. But the fact that Mrs. Ford was giving the entertainment in her honor, and throwing her thus so conspicuously in the company of her granddaughter, was, she realized, the quickest and most efficacious way of taking the worst of the sting out of the scandal. There must be something to be said for her if Mary Ford made so much fuss of her. Mary wasn’t a fool, or easily taken in.

Ann knew before the afternoon was over that Mrs. Ford had, at least partially, accomplished her object. Even if the case now came into Court, Ann would have a few partisans who would not believe ill of her. They were for the most part very warm-hearted, and very kind, these people; but they were inclined to be