But the next morning the hat had vanished out of the bedroom of the exclusive hotel at Bath.  Vera could not believe that it had vanished; but it had.  It was not in the hat-box, nor on the couch, nor under the couch, nor perched on a knob of the bedstead, nor in any of the spots where it ought to have been.  When she realized that as a fact it had vanished she was cross, and on inquiring from Stephen what trick he had played with her hat, she succeeded in conveying to Stephen that she was cross.  Stephen was still in bed, comatose.  The tone of his reply startled her.

‘Look here, child,’ he said, or rather snapped—­he had never been snappish before—­’since you took the confounded thing off last evening I haven’t seen it and I haven’t touched it, and I don’t know where it is.’

‘But you must—­’

‘I gave in to you about the hat,’ Stephen continued to snap, ’though I knew I was a fool to do so, and I consider I behaved pretty pleasantly over it too.  But I don’t want any more scenes.  If you’ve lost it, that’s not my fault.’

Such speeches took Vera very much aback.  And she, too, in her turn, now saw the dangers of a quarrel, and in this second altercation it was Stephen who won.  He said he would not even mention the disappearance of the hat to the hotel manager.  He was sure it must be in one of Vera’s trunks.  And in the end Vera performed that day’s trip in another hat.

They reached the Five Towns much earlier than they had anticipated—­before lunch on the ninth day, whereas the new servants in their new house at Bursley were only expecting them for dinner.  So Stephen had the agreeable idea of stopping the car in front of the new Hotel Metropole at Hanbridge and lunching there.  Precisely opposite this new and luxurious caravanserai (as they love to call it in the Five Towns) is the imposing garage and agency where Stephen had hired the Napier car.  Felix said he would lunch hurriedly in order to transact certain business at the garage before taking them on to Bursley.  After lunch, however, Vera caught him transacting business with a chambermaid in a corridor.  Shocking though the revelation is, it needs to be said that Felix was kissing the chambermaid.  The blow to Mrs Cheswardine was severe.  She had imagined that Felix spent all his time in gazing up to her as an unattainable star.

She spoke to Stephen about it, in the accents of disillusion.  ‘What?’ cried Stephen.  ’Don’t you know?  They’re engaged to be married.  Her name is Mary Callear.  She used to be parlourmaid at Uncle John’s at Oldcastle.  But hotels pay higher wages.’

Felix engaged to a parlourmaid!  Felix, who had always seemed to Vera a gentleman in disguise!  Yes, it was indeed a blow!

But balm awaited Vera at her new home in Bursley.  A parcel, obviously containing a cardboard box, had arrived for Stephen.  He opened it, and the lost hat was inside it.  Stephen read a note, and explained that the hotel people at Bath had found it and forwarded it.  He began to praise the hat anew.  He made Vera put it on instantly, and seemed delighted.  So much so that Vera went out to the porch to say good-bye to Felix in a most forgiving frame of mind.  She forgave Felix for being engaged to the chambermaid.