without money it would have been different, but to try to
work with people who used to find her large subscriptions a very great
help and now had to do without them, was depressing. She had to make
constant efforts to believe that they were all just the same to her as
they had been in the past.

"How much did you give that youth instead of the L100?"

"Only ten, Edmund." There was a note of pleading in her voice.

"And you will have dinner up here on a tray as there is no fire in the
dining-room?"

"Well, what does it matter?"

"And how much will there be to eat on the tray?"

"Oh! much more than I can possibly eat."

"Because it will be some nasty warmed-up stuff washed down by tea. It's
of no use trying to deceive me: I've heard that the cook is seventeen,
and an orphan herself."

"But what will those other orphans have for dinner?"

"Now, Rose, will you listen to common sense. How many orphans has that
sandy-faced cleric on his hands?"

"There were only four left."

"Then I'll get those four disposed of somehow, if you will do something
I want you to do."

"What is it? But, Edmund, you know you have done too much for my poor
works already; I can't let you."

"Never mind, if you will do what I want."

"What is it?"

"Come right away in the yacht, you and your mother, and we'll go
wherever you like."

Joy sprang into her face, but then he saw doubt, and he knew with a deep
pang what the doubt meant. He wished to move, oh! so carefully now, or
he would lose all the ground he had lately gained.

"What scruples have you now?" he asked laughing. "What a genius you have
for them! Look here, Rose, it's common sense; you want a change, you can
let the house up to Easter. Besides, you know what it would do for your
mother; see what she thinks."

"It's all so quick," gasped Rose, laughing.

"Well, then, don't settle at once if you like; but not one penny for
those poor dear little orphans if you don't come. And now, I want to say
something else quick, because the tray with the chops and the cheese and
the tea will all be getting greasy if I don't get out of the way. Do you
know I think I was very hard on that Miss Dexter. I remember I solemnly
warned you not to have to do with her. You were quite right: it is not
healthy to think so much of that will; it poisons the mind. I am quite
sure that poor thing is not to blame."

His tone was curiously eager, it seemed to Rose; and then he began
discussing Mi