Returning to England _via_ the West Indies in the company of her unclewho was coming home on leave before taking up an appointment asMinister to one of the South American republics, she was greeted on theplatform at Waterloo by her father. Sir John Blake had by this timeforgotten their previous disagreements, or, at any rate, determined toignore them, and Isobel, who was now in her way a finished woman of theworld, though she did not forget, had come to a like conclusion. Sotheir meeting was cordial enough, and for a while, not a very longwhile, they continued to live together in outward amity, with a tacitunderstanding that they should follow their respective paths,unmolested by each other.