ittle surprises for them all, came
back to him vividly. "She was the most affectionate girl I ever knew,"
he said. "She was more affectionate than you, Betty," with a smile.

Bettina smiled in return and bent her head to put a kiss on his hand, a
warm, lovely, comprehending kiss.

"If she had been different I should not have thought so much of the
change," she said. "I believe that people are always more or less LIKE
themselves as long as they live. What has seemed to happen has been so
unlike Rosy that there must be some reason for it."

"You think that she has been prevented from seeing us?"

"I think it so possible that I am not going to announce my visit
beforehand."

"You have a good head, Betty," her father said.

"If Sir Nigel has put obstacles in our way before, he will do it again.
I shall try to find out, when I reach London, if Rosalie is at Stornham.
When I am sure she is there, I shall go and present myself. If Sir Nigel
meets me at the park gates and orders his gamekeepers to drive me off
the premises, we shall at least know that he has some reason for not
wishing to regard the usual social and domestic amenities. I feel rather
like a detective. It entertains me and excites me a little."

The deep blue of her eyes shone under the shadow of the extravagant
lashes as she laughed.

"Are you willing that I should go, father?" she said next.

"Yes," he answered. "I am willing to trust you, Betty, to do things I
would not trust other girls to try at. If you were not my girl at all,
if you were a man on Wall Street, I should know you would be pretty safe
to come out a little more than even in any venture you made. You know
how to keep cool."

Bettina picked up her fallen cloak and laid it over her arm. It was made
of billowy frills of Malines lace, such as only Vanderpoels could buy.
She looked down at the amazing thing and touched up the frills with her
fingers as she whimsically smiled.

"There are a good many girls who can be trusted to do things in these
days," she said. "Women have found out so much. Perhaps it is because
the heroines of novels have informed them. Heroines and heroes always
bring in the new fashions in character. I believe it is years since a
heroine 'burst into a flood of tears.' It has been discovered, really,
that nothing is to be gained by it. Whatsoever I find at Stornham Court,
I shall neither weep nor be helpless. There is the Atlantic cable, you
know. Perhaps that is one