o idea of the extent of it. It will take a great
deal of money to give them new houses, proper sanitary conditions,
and all the things they need."

"Never mind that--only tell me what to do."

"But _can_ you do it? I know how comparatively limited you are as to
money."

"Comparatively only," he said, reassuringly. "I have much less than
my predecessor had, but fortunately I have little pride and simple
tastes. I can let the place in Leicestershire, where the hunting is
good, and I can also lease the town house if necessary. Pray consider
that the question of money is disposed of. I assure you that does not
enter into it."

Thus invited, Bettina sat down before the desk, while he took a seat
near by, and with the papers before her she went fully into the
questions at issue, showing a grasp of the situation which soon
testified to her companion that she had studied it to some purpose.
All the changes which she recommended were approved, but more than
once his attention was diverted from the purpose of the future to an
indignant contempt for the delinquencies of the past. It was hard for
him to constrain himself to silence as to this, but Bettina thanked
him in her heart for the successful effort which he made. She was too
abject in her sense of compunction for her own past to feel inclined
to severe judgment of another, and in her joy that these cherished
plans of hers were to be immediately realized she was able to put by
for the moment more personal trouble. She spoke with a fervor that
made her beautiful face wellnigh adorable in its kind compassion, and
when she would describe the wrongs and hardships of these poor simple
folk her eyes at times would fill with tears of pity and her voice
would tremble.

She knew it not, but in this hour she was making a new revelation of
herself to Horace, which answered to the need of his maturer nature
as marvellously as the Bettina of old had satisfied the needs of the
ardent young fellow that he was then. If he remembered that Bettina
only as being beautiful and beloved, he saw in this one a far nobler
and more perfect beauty, as he recognized in her qualities more
worthy to command love.

Here they were alone together, in a mood of extraordinary openness
and sincerity, for they were thinking the same thoughts of
helpfulness to others, and there was not an atom of the embarrassment
of their personal relationship to come between them now. It was not
singular, therefore, th