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Ann had to give the little girls their evening meal as soon as they reached home.

“I know you won’t mind having something with them,” said Vera Holmes, “We’ll be such a crowd in the dining-room.”

Ann didn’t mind in the least. She would rather be with the children than with so many strangers.

Bill Ralston and his wife and her sister, Nell Brunton, Waring, and three members of the Omoana Polo Team, Kent, Ganthorne and Stafford, had all returned to Tirau to dinner. Sam Stafford was the only married member of the Omoana trio, and his wife, Mabel, was with him.

“We’ll probably dance or play bridge or something in the smoking-room afterwards; so as soon as the children are in bed you could come in and join us if you liked. But for goodness’ sake keep those wretched infants out of the way. They’re such a nuisance when visitors are here.”

Ann had soon learned that the one supreme duty expected of her was that of “keeping the children out of the way.”… She was far more nurse than governess; but if Mrs. Holmes asked her to perform duties in connection with the children’s clothes, meals, and general well-being, which she might not have been required to undertake in England, her employer at any rate seemed to be quite willing to include her in all the social life of the station and the neighborhood.

Vera Holmes was still a puzzle to Ann—but a fascinating puzzle. For though at times she was irritable and inconsiderate and subject to sudden fits of