Hullo, that's the gong! Come indoors, and we'll have tea." Ingred was very quiet as she went back in the sidecar that evening, though Hereward, sitting on the luggage-carrier, was in high spirits, and fired off jokes at her the whole time.

The fact was she was thinking deeply.

Certain problems, which she had hitherto cast carelessly away, now obtruded themselves so definitely that they must at last be faced.
The process, albeit necessary, was not altogether a pleasant one.
To understand Ingred's perplexities we must give a brief account of the fortunes of her family up to the time this story begins.

Mr.Saxon was an architect, who had made a good connection in the town of Grovebury.
Here he had designed and built for himself a very beautiful house, and had liberally entertained his own and his children's friends.

When war broke out, he had been amongst the first to volunteer for his country's service, and, as a further act of patriotism, he and his wife had decided to offer the use of "Rotherwood" for a Red Cross Hospital.