. 'I had to hold her hand while the
operation went on, otherwise she might have been blind for life. Would
you take away a living, breathing person's sight because of senseless
clay?'

Jasmine marched out of the room.

CHAPTER III.

AUNT AGNES'S WAY.

If there was a person with a determined will, with a heart set upon
certain actions which must and _should_ be carried out, that was the
elderly lady known as Agnes Delacour. She never went back on her word.
She never relaxed in her charities. She herself lived in a small house
in Chelsea, and, being a rich woman, could thereby spend large sums on
the poor and the needy. She was a wise woman in her generation, and
never gave help when help was not needed. No begging letters appealed
to her, no pretended woes took her in; but the real sufferers in life!
these she attended to, these she helped, these she comforted. Her
universal plan was to get the sorrowful and the poor in a very great
measure to help themselves. She had no idea of encouraging what she
called idleness. Thrift was her motto. If a person needed money, that
person must work for it. Agnes would help her to work, but she
certainly would not have anything whatsoever to do with those whom she
called the _wasters_ of life.

In consequence, Agnes Delacour did a vast amount of good. She never by
any chance gave injudiciously. Her present protegee was Mrs Macintyre.
Mrs Macintyre was the sort of woman to whom the heart of Agnes Delacour
went out in a great wave of pity. In the first place, she was Scots,
and Miss Delacour loved the Scots. In the next place, she was very
proud, and would not eat the bread of charity. Mrs Macintyre was a
highly educated woman. She had lost both husband and children, and was
therefore stranded on the shores of life. There was little or no hope
for her, unless her friend Agnes took her up. Now, therefore, was the
time for Agnes Delacour to attack that strange being, her
brother-in-law, whom she had neglected so long.

She hardly knew his sister, Cecilia Constable, but she meant to become
acquainted with her soon, to plead for her help, and in so great a
cause to overlook the fact that this brother and this sister were a
pair of faddists. Faddists they should not remain long, if _she_ could
help it. She, Agnes Delacour, strong-minded and determined, would see
to that. The children of this most silly pair required education. Who
more suitable for the pur