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then the someone behind that.’
    â€˜You would think it would help the household to have things on time.’
    â€˜Such a household would be above help,’ said Daniel.
    â€˜It is a tribute to Grandma’s management that you can talk like that, Father,’ said Luce.
    â€˜Well, I may be allowed to pay her the compliment.’
    Regan looked touched beyond the demand of the occasion.
    â€˜The gong must soon sound with so much behind it,’ said Graham, in his toneless voice.
    â€˜It will sound when luncheon is ready,’ said Eleanor.
    â€˜It will be our last luncheon without the babies at the end,’ said Luce. ‘Their holiday ends today. I cannot get used to being without them.’
    â€˜Luce has not forgotten her brothers and sister in three weeks,’ said Daniel. ‘It must be the depth of her nature.’
    â€˜You did not remember them enough to speak of them,’ said Sir Jesse.
    As the gong sounded through the house, Fulbert walked swiftly to the door and held it open for the women, sending his eyes to different objects in the room, as if he felt no inclination to hurry this part of the proceedings. He rather enjoyed any duty that had a touch of the formal or official. At the table he did the carving, a duty deputed by his father, and performed it with attention, swiftness and skill, supplying his own plate at the end with equal but not extra care. Daniel and Graham were talking under their breath, and their mother threw them a glance.
    â€˜You need not concern yourself with them,’ said Sir Jesse. ‘They are about to address themselves to their business.’
    â€˜Isn’t it a repellent trait in my brother?’ said Daniel.
    â€˜So is Grandpa,’ murmured Graham. ‘He and I are of the same old stock.’
    â€˜Any word you have to say of me, you can say to my face,’ said Sir Jesse.
    Graham was about to reply, but his mother’s eyes prevented him. He was dependent on Sir Jesse for most of what he had, and this was not a forfeiture it was wise to incur. Daniel took his grandfather in an easier spirit and reckoned with him in so far as he served his purposes. Sir Jesse thought him better behaved, a not uncommon result of this attitude of youth.
    â€˜Well, my boy, we must break our news,’ said Sir Jesse to his son.
    â€˜Of the prospect that takes me from the bosom of my family,’ said Fulbert, looking with mingled apprehension and resolution at the faces round him.
    â€˜Mother, Grandpa,’ said Luce, turning steady eyes upon them, ‘we should be glad to have this thing cleared up, whatever it is. We have been living for days under the sword of Damocles, and it will be a relief to have it fall. What is this threat of losing Father for some reason unexplained? We should be grateful for the truth, and we feel we have a right to it.’
    â€˜Your father has to go to South America to look into the estate,’ said Eleanor. ‘Your grandfather had the final letters today.’
    â€˜Thank you, Mother. That is at once a shock and a satisfaction. We had no idea what the dark hints might portend, and imagination was outstripping the truth. Now we may hope that the exile will not be long.’
    â€˜A matter of six months,’ said Fulbert, with courage and ease.
    â€˜Thank you, Father. That would have been a blow not so many days ago. As it is, we chiefly experience relief.’
    â€˜You could have asked before,’ said Eleanor.
    â€˜No, Mother, we could not,’ said Luce, meeting her eyes. ‘There was that about you, that precluded approach of the subject.’
    â€˜What led our elders to conceal the simple matter?’ said Daniel, in a low tone.
    â€˜The instinct to keep all things from the young,’ said Graham. ‘Even a temporary concealment was better than nothing.’
    â€˜Six months is a moderate sentence,’ said Daniel. ‘We can hardly expect Graham to