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Two or three days later Pelham received a note from Barbara Evershed.

“Dearest Dick, come and see me at once,” she wrote. “Something most wonderful and unexpected has happened.”

Pelham, who was just attending to his first brief, started up with an exclamation, put on his hat, and in half an hour had arrived at Mrs. Evershed’s house in Mark Place. He was admitted at once, and ran up to the drawing-room, where Barbara was waiting for him.

“Dear old Dick,” she cried, “I am about the happiest girl on earth!”

“But what has happened? I never saw you look so excited before.”

“I have reason to be excited. We can be engaged now quite openly. Oh, how happy I am!”

“And so am I, Barbara, if it is true; but has your mother given her consent?”

“Yes, it is all right now. Everything has come right, and in such a wonderful, marvelous way.”

“Tell me the story.”

“I must begin at the beginning. You know I hinted to you about poor mother’s money difficulties?”

“Yes, Barbara.”

“Well, they are all put right; and so suddenly, so unexpectedly. And who do you think has done it? Why, Dr. Tarbot—the man I almost hated. He has lent mother ten thousand pounds, and on such easy terms that it will be possible for her to repay it all by degrees.