ow you, Mary.
She is positively wagging her tail."

"She is miserable without me," Mary said, wondering what she was to do
about Fifine when she took up that temporary work which the Lady
Principal of Queen's College had found for her. Meanwhile she devoted
herself to the little creature. But about three days after Lady Anne's
funeral Fifine solved all difficulties concerning her by dying quietly
in the night.

Mary slipped in stealthily to the garden of the old house when the new
owners were not likely to be about, and placed the little rigid body in
the grave Jennings had dug for it, lined with a few flowers that had
come up in the beds, snowdrops and wallflowers and little pale mauve
double primroses. She wept a few bitter tears above the grave. The death
of the little dog was like her last link with her dear old friend. The
day had the bright, clear, strong sunshine of March. There were yet
drifts of snow in the valleys among the hills, but spring was coming,
and the bare boughs would soon be thick with the buds of leafage. She
took one look at the sunny, green place and the old house which had
harboured her so kindly. Then she went away with a drooping head.

That very afternoon Lady Agatha came. She rushed in on Mary like the
March wind, big and beautiful, in her long cloak of orange-tawny velvet,
breathing fire and fury over the unkindness to Mary. She had interviewed
Lady Iniscrone, and had gathered from her what had been happening.

"In one way I am selfishly glad, Mary, because you will belong so much
more to me. I am going to take possession of you. For the first time for
many years Chenevix House is to be opened this season. I am going to be
among the political hostesses. I shall do all sorts of things. I have
found a dear old lady to live with us, my father's twenty-second cousin,
Mrs. Morres. She will make it possible for me to do the things I want
without running tilt against all the windmills of prejudice. I shall
respect your mourning. You will have your own room to which you can
retire. Chenevix House looks over a quiet, green square. You shall see
the spring come even there. Afterwards, when the season is at an end, we
shall bury ourselves in the green country."

She paused for breath, and Mary smiled at her. She was so big and bonny
and generous it was impossible not to smile at her.

"Where do I come in?" she asked. "I want to earn my bread."

"And so you shall. You shall earn it hard. You ar