And her arrival had set the whole station buzzing.
Led by the Colonel's wife, Lady Harriet Mansfield, the women of the regiment had--with the single exception of Mrs.Ralston whose opinion was of no account--risen and condemned the splendid stranger who had come amongst them with such supreme audacity and eclipsed the fairest of them.

Stella's own simple explanation that she had, upon attaining her majority and fifty pounds a year, decided to quit the home of some distant relatives who did not want her and join Tommy who was the only near relation she had, had satisfied no one.

She was an interloper, and as such they united to treat her.

As Lady Harriet said, no nice girl would have dreamed of taking such an extraordinary step, and she had not the smallest intention of offering her the chaperonage that she so conspicuously lacked.

If Mrs.Ralston chose to do so, that was her own affair.