Those of our readers who have met the Castletons before in _The Head
Girl at the Gables_, will remember that they were a very large family.
Morland, the eldest, had been at the war, had won the D.C.M., and was now
learning engineering; Claudia was studying singing in London; Madox had
been sent for his first term at boarding-school; and the four little
ones, Constable, Lilith, Perugia, and Gabriel, were still in the nursery.
There was only one gap. Landry, poor Landry, who had never been like
other boys, had passed over the divide and joined the beautiful mother
whom in features he had so strongly resembled. A painting of him, as a
little child in her arms, hung on the studio wall. In some respects it
was the most brilliant portrait which Mr. Castleton had ever achieved. He
always showed it to visitors as a specimen of his best work.
At the time this story begins, Beata and Romola were fourteen and
thirteen years of age. They thoroughly maintained the family reputation
for good looks.
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