to Mr. Wilkins that it must be difficult to scold a
Dester who looked like that and so exquisitely said nothing. Mrs.
Fisher, he was glad to see, gradually found it difficult herself, for
her severity slackened, and she ended by saying lamely, "You ought to
have told me you were not doing it."

"I didn't know you thought I was," said the lovely voice.

"I would now like to know," said Mrs. Fisher, "what you propose
to do for the rest of the time here."

"Nothing," said Scrap, smiling.

"Nothing? Do you mean to say--"

"If I may be allowed, ladies," interposed Mr. Wilkins in his
suavest professional manner, "to make a suggestion"--they both looked
at him, and remembering him as they first saw him felt indulgent-- "I
would advise you not to spoil a delightful holiday with worries over
housekeeping."

"Exactly," said Mrs. Fisher. "It is what I intend to avoid."

"Most sensible," said Mr. Wilkins. "Why not, then," he
continued, "allow the cook--an excellent cook, by the way--so much a
head per diem"--Mr. Wilkins knew what was necessary in Latin--"and
tell her that for this sum she must cater for you, and not only cater
but cater as well as ever? One could easily reckon it out. The
charges of a moderate hotel, for instance, would do as a basis, halved,
or perhaps even quartered."

"And this week that has just passed?" asked Mrs. Fisher. "The
terrible bills of this first week? What about them?"

"They shall be my present to San Salvatore," said Scrap, who
didn't like the idea of Lotty's nest-egg being reduced so much beyond
what she was prepared for.

There was a silence. The ground was cut from under Mrs. Fisher's
feet.

"Of course if you choose to throw your money about--" she said at last,
disapproving but immensely relieved, while Mr. Wilkins was rapt in the
contemplation of the precious qualities of blue blood. This readiness,
for instance, not to trouble about money, this free-handedness--it
was not only what one admired in others, admired in others perhaps
more than anything else, but it was extraordinarily useful to the
professional classes. When met with it should be encouraged by warmth
of reception. Mrs. Fisher was not warm. She accepted--from which
he deduced that with her wealth went closeness--but she accepted
grudgingly. Presents were presents, and one did not look them in this
manner in the mouth, he felt; and if Lady Caroline found her pleasure
in presenting his wife and Mrs. Fish