The life of Isobel Hannay had not, up to the time when she left England to join her uncle, been a very bright one.

At the death of her father, her mother had been left with an income that enabled her to live, as she said, genteelly, at Brighton.

She had three children: the eldest a girl of twelve; Isobel, who was eight; and a boy of five, who was sadly deformed, the result of a fall from the arms of a careless nurse when he was an infant.

It was at that time that Major Hannay had come home on leave, having been left trustee and executor, and seen to all the money arrangements, and had established his brother's widow at Brighton.

The work had not been altogether pleasant, for Mrs.Hannay was a selfish and querulous woman, very difficult to satisfy even in little matters, and with a chronic suspicion that everyone with whom she came in contact was trying to get the best of her.