hat?" cried Rosy. "Have you seen all that already?" She actually
stared at her. "How practical and--and American!"

"To see that a wall has fallen when you find yourself obliged to walk
round a pile of grass-grown brickwork?" said Betty.

Lady Anstruthers still softly stared.

"What--what are you thinking of?" she asked.

"Thinking that it is all too beautiful----" Betty's look swept the
loveliness spread about her, "too beautiful and too valuable to be
allowed to lose its value and its beauty." She turned her eyes back to
Rosy and the deep dimple near her mouth showed itself delightfully. "It
is a throwing away of capital," she added.

"Oh!" cried Lady Anstruthers, "how clever you are! And you look so
different, Betty."

"Do I look stupid?" the dimple deepening. "I must try to alter that."

"Don't try to alter your looks," said Rosy. "It is your looks that make
you so--so wonderful. But usually women--girls----" Rosy paused.

"Oh, I have been trained," laughed Betty. "I am the spoiled daughter of
a business man of genius. His business is an art and a science. I have
had advantages. He has let me hear him talk. I even know some trifling
things about stocks. Not enough to do me vital injury--but something.
What I know best of all,"--her laugh ended and her eyes changed
their look,--"is that it is a blunder to think that beauty is not
capital--that happiness is not--and that both are not the greatest
assets in the scheme. This," with a wave of her hand, taking in all they
saw, "is beauty, and it ought to be happiness, and it must be taken care
of. It is your home and Ughtred's----"

"It is Nigel's," put in Rosy.

"It is entailed, isn't it?" turning quickly. "He cannot sell it?"

"If he could we should not be sitting here," ruefully.

"Then he cannot object to its being rescued from ruin."

"He will object to--to money being spent on things he does not care
for." Lady Anstruthers' voice lowered itself, as it always did when she
spoke of her husband, and she indulged in the involuntary hasty glance
about her.

"I am going to my room to take off my hat," Betty said. "Will you come
with me?"

She went into the house, talking quietly of ordinary things, and in
this way they mounted the stairway together and passed along the gallery
which led to her room. When they entered it she closed the door, locked
it, and, taking off her hat, laid it aside. After doing which she sat.

"No one can hear and no one can com