ake visits yet!"

"I don't see why I can't visit Susan. She's a relative, and it isn't
as if she were entertaining a number of people. She says she's very
quiet; she has hardly asked anybody, only one or two intimate friends."

"She'll have three or four men down for the partridge shooting."

"After all," said Sylvia, "I can't make her send them away. You have
once or twice had men from town here."

"Susan leads a very different life from mine," Mrs. Lansing persisted.
"She's a little too fond of amusement, and I don't approve of all her
friends." She paused as an idea struck her. "Is Captain Bland going
there for the shooting?"

"I really can't tell you. Is there any reason why she shouldn't invite
him?"

Mrs. Lansing would have preferred that Sylvia should not see so much of
Bland as she was likely to do if she stayed in the same house with him,
though she knew of nothing in particular to his discredit. He had
served without distinction in two campaigns, he lived extravagantly,
and was supposed to be something of a philanderer. Indeed, not long
ago, an announcement of his engagement to a lady of station had been
confidently expected; but the affair had, for some unknown reason,
suddenly fallen through. Mrs. Lansing was puzzled about him. If the
man were looking for a wealthy wife, why should he be attracted, as she
thought he was, by Sylvia, who had practically nothing.

"I'd really rather have you remain with us; but of course I can't
object to your going," she said.

"I knew you would be nice about it," Sylvia exclaimed. "I must have a
talk with Herbert; you said he would be home this evening."

Lansing's business occasionally prevented his nightly return from the
nearest large town, but he arrived some hours later, and after dinner
Sylvia found him in his smoking-room. He looked up with a smile when
she came in, for their relations were generally pleasant. They
understood each other, though this did not lead to mutual confidence or
respect.

"Well?" he said.

Sylvia sat down in an easy chair, adopting, as she invariably did, a
becoming pose, and handed him George's letter.

"He hasn't sent you very much," Herbert remarked.

"No," said Sylvia, "that's the difficulty."

"So I anticipated. You're not economical."

Sylvia laughed.

"I won't remind you of your failings. You have one virtue--you can be
liberal when it suits you; and you're my trustee."

Lansing's rather fleshy, smooth