"Scarified!" murmured Cecilia. But Bob was not listening. His face was
radiant.

"I couldn't wait in the park any longer," he said. "I had to come and
tell you. Tommy, old thing--I'm demobilized!"



CHAPTER II

THE RAINHAMS


It was one of Mrs. Mark Rainham's grievances that, comparatively late
in her married life, she should suddenly find herself brought into
association with the children of her husband's first marriage. They were
problems that Fate had previously removed from her path; she found it
extremely annoying--at first--that Fate should cease to be so tactful,
casting upon her a burden long borne by other shoulders. It was not
until she had accepted Mark Rainham, eleven years before, that she found
out the very existence of Bob and Cecilia; she resented the manner of
the discovery, even as she resented the children themselves. Not that
she ever dreamed of breaking off her engagement on their account. She
was a milliner in a Kensington shop, and to marry Mark Rainham, who
was vaguely "something in the city," and belonged to a good club, and
dressed well, was a distinct step in the social scale, and two unknown
children were not going to make her draw back. But to mother them was
quite another question.

Luckily, Fate had a compassionate eye upon the young Rainhams, and was