aughter inherited, accustomed as they were to the counting of many
millions. And now---?"

"California!" mused Lydia--"Sam Gwent thinks she has gone there after
Roger Seaton. But what can be her object if she doesn't care for him?
It's far more likely she's started for Sicily--she's having a palace
built there for her small self to live in 'all by her lonesome'! Well!
She can afford it!"

And with a short sigh she let go her train of thought and left the
verandah,--it was time to change her costume and prepare "effects" to
dazzle and bewilder the uncertain mind of a crafty old Croesus who,
having freely enjoyed himself as a bachelor up to his present age of
seventy-four, was now looking about for a young strong woman to manage
his house and be a nurse and attendant for him in his declining years,
for which service, should she be suitable, he would concede to her the
name of "wife" in order to give stability to her position. And Lydia
Herbert herself was privately quite aware of his views. Moreover she
was entirely willing to accommodate herself to them for the sake of
riches and a luxurious life, and the "settlement" she meant to insist
upon if her plans ripened to fulfilment. She had no great ambitions;
few women of her social class have. To be well housed, well fed and
well clothed, and enabled to do the fashionable round without
hindrance--this was all she sought, and of romance, sentiment, emotion
or idealism she had none. Now and again she caught the flash of a
thought in her brain higher than the level of material needs, but
dismissed it more quickly than it came as--"Ridiculous! Absolute
nonsense! Like Morgana!"

And to be like Morgana, meant to be like what cynics designate "an
impossible woman,"--independent of opinions and therefore "not
understood of the people."

CHAPTER IV

"Why do you stare at me? You have such big eyes!"

Morgana, dotted only in a white silk nightgown, sitting on the edge of
her bed with her small rosy toes peeping out beneath the tiny frill of
her thin garment, looked at the broad-shouldered handsome girl Manella
who had just brought in her breakfast tray and now stood regarding her
with an odd expression of mingled admiration and shyness.

"Such big eyes!" she repeated--"Like great head-lamps flaring out of
that motor-brain of yours! What do you see in me?"

Manella's brown skin flushed crimson.

"Something I have never seen before!" she answered--"You are so small
a