CHAPTER II.
THE NEW MISTRESS "Here is our dear Sylvia!" said Mrs.Ingleton.
She embraced the girl with much _empressement_, and then, before Sylvia could reach her father, turned and embraced him herself.
"So very nice to be home, dear!" she said effusively.

"We shall be very happy here." Gilbert Ingleton bestowed a somewhat embarrassed salute upon her, one eye on his daughter.

She greeted him sedately the next moment, and though her face was smiling, her welcome seemed to be frozen at its source; it held no warmth.
Mrs.Ingleton, tall, handsome, assertive, cast an appraising eye around the oak-panelled hall.

"Dear me! What severe splendour!" she commented.

"I have a great love for cosiness myself.