There was no doubt that Juley would have defied the doctor (even with Eva Gedge and her children to back him) had not Linnet conceived the happy idea of sending for Mrs. Boyd. And to everybody’s relief Mrs. Boyd came.

Either because of her pleasant and equable disposition, which Juley so wistfully admired, or because long ago in her girlhood she was known to have cherished a romantic passion for the elder Sholto, Maggie Boyd had a more dependable influence over Juley than anyone else, and it was certainly clever of Linnet to have thought of her. Since the Bannermans had left St. Jude’s they had seen very little of their father’s old friend; but for this very reason she would have all the more weight now.

It was Joanna who went for her, and no sooner had the little old lady taken in the situation than she put on her bonnet and cloak and came back to Collessie Street, bringing her daughter, Mamie, with her.

She would have no nonsense, she announced, calmly leading Juley in her grey dressing-gown away from a bewildered survey of the crowded box room under the stairs and back to the bedroom. Juley was to come straight to High Kelvin Place this very day, to be nursed and kept in order. Joanna and Mamie between them would be responsible for the flitting.

“Two great strapping girls,” she insisted, indicating the two rather slender young women who sat either side on the edge of Juley’s bed. “If you leave everything to the young people, my dear, you will soon be led to see that your illness was providential. And there’s Janet too! A regular host in herself. Don’t tell me! I had no idea you were such a faithless Christian, Juley Bannerman!”

Very soon it was decided. Juley protested. She even cried a little. But she was smiling through her tears. Really she loved to be exhorted, accused of lack of faith, treated as a child, except by her own household. And though it still distressed her to think of her wardrobe and the disgrace of her cupboards, she was actually got off in a cab by the afternoon, all wrapped up in shawls and childishly excited at the prospect of being ill at High Kelvin Place.

Rather to Joanna’s surprise, two days had passed without word or sign from Lawrence. But on Wednesday morning the post brought a letter addressed in his hand. It was black-edged.

With a premonition of distress she opened it and read: –

“Dear Joanna,