Her home meant very much to Sylvia Ingleton.

Until the last six months she had always regarded it as her own life-long possession.

For she was an only child, and for the past three years she had been its actual mistress, though virtually she had held the reins of government longer than that.

Her mother had been delicate for as long as she could remember, and it was on account of her failing health that Sylvia had left school earlier than had been intended, that she might be with her.

Since Mrs.Ingleton's death, three years before, she and her father had lived alone together at the old Manor in complete accord.