Virginia felt that she had never received a more embarrassing visitor.

“Would you mind, Stella,” she said, “coming into the drawing-room with me?  This room is supposed to be locked up.  You knew the catch in the door, of course, or you could not have come in.”

“Yes!  I know the catch,” Stella answered, “and, my dear child, you must forgive my saying so, but I have lived here for some years, and it is still home to me.  You, on the other hand, have been here a few weeks.  I know you don’t mean anything unkind, but just because I have quarrelled a little with my father, you must not tell me which rooms I may enter, and which I may not.  I am going to stay here for half an hour, and write some letters.”

“You can write them in any other room in the house,” Virginia declared, “but not here.  It is impossible.”

Stella smiled and shrugged her shoulders as she sat down.

“I am sorry,” she said, “but this is where I mean to write them.  You must remember that this house belongs to my father.  You are here temporarily in my place.  I have not bothered you very much, and it is a very simple thing that I ask.  I want to make use of this room, to write a few letters here.  After that I shall go away.”

The troubled frown on Virginia’s face grew deeper.

“My dear Stella,” she said, “although nothing would please me better than to see your father and you friends again, you must know that he allows no one to enter these rooms when his secretary is away.  In fact, as you know, the door was closed, and if you had not known the secret of the catch, you could not have entered.”

“Well,” Stella repeated carelessly, “since I am here, I am here.  Please unlock this desk and give me some writing paper.”

“I cannot unlock it,” Virginia answered.  “You must know that.”

“But you have the keys,” Stella interposed.

“If I have,” Virginia declared, “it is because your father trusted me with them.”

“Perhaps,” Stella said, leaning a little forward in her chair, “you have also the keys of that wonderful little hiding place of his that he showed me one day.”

“Perhaps I have,” Virginia answered, “but if so, no other person in the world will ever know about it.”

“You won’t even open the desk for me, then?” Stella said.

“Certainly not,” Virginia answered.  “Your father’s orders to me were quite explicit.”

“You do not suppose,” Stella asked, “that he meant to exclude his own daughter?”

“How can I tell?” Virginia answered.  “I know nothing of the trouble there was between you two,” she added more softly, “It is not my affair, although nothing would please me more than to see you friends again.  If you will come into the drawing-room and wait, I will go upstairs and try and persuade him to see you.”

Stella shook her head.

“It would be of no use,” she said.  “He is frightfully obstinate, and I shall never have a chance of making my peace with him again unless I can come upon him unexpectedly.”