They mutually agreed to put the best face on everything before their mother.

She was there to meet them at the door, and it rejoiced her heart to hear their brave talk and the cheery story of their day's adventures.

All day long her heart had gone out to them in yearnings of prayer and hope and love, and it repaid her a hundred- fold, this hour of happy meeting, with the sunlight of their faces and the music of their voices filling her soul.
As soon as supper was over Reginald suggested a precipitate retreat into the streets, for fear of another neighbourly incursion.

Mrs Cruden laughingly yielded, and the trio had a long walk, heedless where they went, so long as they were together.

They wandered as far as Oxford Street, looking into what shops were open, and interested still more in the ever-changing stream of people who even at ten o'clock at night crowded the pavements.