to be," Helen said and smiled as though
nothing more were needed. "And soon she will be going away. She won't
stay after she is twenty-one."

"D'you think that fairy-tale is going to come true?"

"Oh, yes. She always does what she wants, you know. And she is counting
on Uncle Alfred, though she says she isn't. She had a letter from him
the other day."

"And when she has gone, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know what I'm going to do."

"Things won't be easier for you then. You'd better face that."

"But she'll be better--Notya will be better."

"And you'll marry Zebedee."

"I don't like saying what I'm going to do."

Rupert's dark eyes had a hard, bright light. "Are you supposed to love
that unfortunate man? Look here, you're not going to be tied to Notya
all her life. Zebedee and I won't have it."

"What's going to happen to her, then?"

"Bless the child! She's grown up. She can look after herself."

"But I can't leave just you and her in this house together."

He said in rather a strained voice, "I shan't be here. The bank's
sending me to the new branch."

"Oh!" Helen said.

"I'm sorry about it. I tried not to seem efficient, but there's
something about me--charm, I think. They must have noticed how I talk to
the old ladies who don't know how to make out their cheques. So they're
sending me, but I don't know that I ought to leave you all."

"Of course you must."

"I can come home on Saturdays."

"Yes. And Notya's better, and John is near. Why shouldn't you go?"

"Because your face fell."

"It's only that everybody's going. It seems like the end of things." She
pictured the house without Rupert and she had a sense of desolation, for
no one would whistle on the track at night and make the house warmer and
more beautiful with his entrance; there would be no one to look up from
his book with unfailing readiness to listen to everything and understand
it; no one to say pleasant things which made her happy.

"Why," she said, plumbing the depths of loss, "there'll be no one to get
up early for!"

"Ah, it's Miriam who'll feel that!" he said.

"And even Daniel won't come any more. He's tired of Miriam's
foolishness."

"To tell you a secret, he's in love with some one else. But he has no
luck. No wonder! If you could be married to him for ten years before you
married him at all--"

"I don't know," Helen said thoughtfully. "Those funny men--" She did not
finish her thought. "It will be queer