I said it would be. Nothing can ever be the same again.”

Miss Williams did not ask when Livia had made this cryptic prophecy; she merely remarked: “I hope you’re not angry with your mother—she did what she thought was for the best.”

“I’m not angry with anybody. Not even with Mr. Standon any more.”

“And who’s Mr. Standon?”

“The man my mother goes with.”

“Oh, come now…” And Miss Williams, colouring a little, felt the ice getting thin even under her own experienced feet. (But not, perhaps, so experienced in certain directions.) She added hastily: “Livia… I think we had better not discuss this any further for the present. And I’m not sure whether you ought to go home now or wait till the end of term. I’ll think it over and let you know in a few days.”

Miss Williams planned to write Mrs. Channing a long letter of explanation which would arrive ahead of Livia; but this intention was frustrated by a much simpler act by the girl herself. She ran away from the school that same evening, taking nobody into her confidence, but leaving for Miss Williams a note in which there was, perhaps, just a whiff of histrionics:

“DEAR MISS WILLIAMS—I am going home, and since you think I am a thief, I have stolen money for the fare from Joan Martin’s locker. I took a pound. Please give it back to her out of my bank-money. —OLIVIA.”

The note was not discovered till the next morning, by which time Livia would have reached home. All Miss Williams could do, and with great luck, was to replace the pound before the loss of that was discovered also. She knew Joan was Livia’s best friend and would willingly have lent the money had she been asked… A strange girl, Livia—perhaps not a bad girl; but still, it was just as well not to have her back at Cheldean.

* * * * *

Livia reached Browdley before six o’clock on a windy March morning. Throughout the night-long train journey she had thought out the things she would immediately ask her mother; she wanted to know ALL the secrets, all the details that Miss Williams had not told because she probably had not known them herself. The list of these was mountainous by the time the cab came within sight of Stoneclough, grey and ghostly in the first light of dawn. In the yard beside the stables she was startled to see a new motorcar, with her mother in the driver’s seat and Mr. Standon hastily stowing bags into the back.

“Livia! LIVIA! What on earth are you doing here?”

As her mother spoke Livia noted the exchange of glances between her and Mr. Standon. The latter dropped the bags and came over with a smile of rather weary astonishment. He was a very elegant young man, but he did not look his best at six in the morning; and he had, indeed, received so many astonishments during the past twelve hours that he felt incapable of responding to any more. “Hello, Livia,” he remarked; it was all he could think of to say.

Livia ignored him. “Mother—I’ve left Cheldean—I’ve run away—I’m never going back there—and I want to talk to you —I’ve got things to ask you—”

“But Livia… not now… oh, not now…” And a look of panic came over Emily’s face as she turned again to Mr. Standon. “Lawrence, DO make haste… we can’t stop because of—because of ANYTHING…” Then: “We’ve— that is, dear—your mother’s in a hurry—”

Livia knew from experience that Emily always called herself ‘your mother’ to put distance between herself and the facing of any issue; it was like a shield behind which she could retire from a battlefield before the battle had begun.

“Mother, you CAN’T go away yet. I’ve got most important things to talk to you about… ALONE.”

“No, no, dear… Lawrence, put those bags in and let’s be off… If you’ve got into any trouble at Cheldean, don’t worry… Mother will write to Miss Williams and have it all put right.”

“It isn’t that, mother… Mother, PLEASE—please will you come into the house and let me talk to you for a while.”

“Darling, I can’t—I just CAN’T—”

But this was too much even for Mr. Standon. “Perhaps you’d better, Emily,” he advised. “You can’t let her go in without—without—” And the look between them was exchanged again.

Emily slowly climbed out of the car, her face pale and distraught. She walked with Livia a few paces towards the side door leading through the kitchen into the house. They did not speak, but from the doorstep Emily gave one despairing look over her shoulder towards Mr.