sal. They put in a year in London, but what
Dick earned was quite insufficient to cope with what Mrs. Grant spent
and things went from bad to worse.

Mabel never offered any advice until she was asked but when Dick spoke
to her finally she was quite definite.

"You have got to take Mother in hand," she said. "Father never did. He
spent his life making money for her to spend, but there is no reason why
you should. Get a small practice somewhere in the country where there
are no shops and just tell Mother you are going to settle there for five
years at least."

"She will get another cough," argued Dick.

"You must let her cough, it won't hurt her," answered Mabel.

Undoubtedly Mrs. Grant did not approve of Wrotham to begin with, but it
had its advantages, even for her. She settled very quickly into the role
of Lady Bountiful; the villagers gazing upon her with such unmixed
admiration that she was moved to remark to Mabel that it was really
pleasant doing things for such grateful people. Dick provided her with a
victoria and horse in place of the usual doctor's trap, and she could
drive abroad to visit this or that protege in truly regal style. It
meant that Dick had to pay all his visits, and some of them very far off
and at all sorts of unseasonable hours, on a bicycle, but he never
grudged making sacrifices of that kind for her. No one admired his
mother in the abstract more than Dick did.

Mabel perhaps resented the extra work it entailed on him, for she loved
Dick with the whole force of her self-restrained heart. But, as usual,
she kept silent. The villagers could see that she drove out in
attendance on Mrs. Grant, but to them she was only an uninteresting
shadow that waited on the other's splendour. They often wondered among
themselves how Mrs. Grant could have a daughter as drab and
uninteresting as Miss Grant; they did not realize how, like a vampire,
the older woman lived upon the younger one's vitality. People like Mrs.
Grant exist at the expense of those they come in contact with. You
either have to live for them or away from them.

On this particular morning Dick finished his breakfast before either his
mother or sister, and pushing back his chair, asked, as he had always
asked since the days of his childhood, if he might rise.

"Before I am finished, Dick?" remonstrated Mrs. Grant; "it is not very
polite, dear."

"I know," Dick apologized, "but the truth is I have an early call to pay
this morning.