oliday house for them, to which they might go in instalments
throughout the summer. She would pay the rent, provide a
lady-superintendent, and make herself responsible for all but food
expenses. Her small face relaxed--became quite soft and charming--as she
wrote.

"But, my dear," cried Mrs. Phillips in dismay, as Daphne handed her the
letter to read, "you have taken the house on Lake George, and you know
the girls had all set their hearts on that place in the White
Mountains!"

Daphne's lips tightened. "Certainly I have taken the house on Lake
George," she said, as she carefully wiped her pen. "I told them I
should."

"But, my dear, they are so tired of Lake George! They have been there
three years running. And you know they subscribe a good deal
themselves."

"Very well!--then let them do without my help. I have inquired into the
matter. The house on Lake George is much more suitable than the White
Mountains farm, and I have written to the agent. The thing's done."

Mrs. Phillips argued a little more, but Daphne was immovable.

Mrs. Verrier, watching the two, reflected, as she had often done before,
that Mrs. Phillips's post was not particularly enviable. Daphne treated
her in many ways with great generosity, paid her highly, grudged her no
luxury, and was always courteous to her in public. But in private
Daphne's will was law, and she had an abrupt and dictatorial way of
asserting it that brought the red back into Mrs. Phillips's faded
cheeks. Mrs. Verrier had often expected her to throw up her post. But
there was no doubt something in Daphne's personality which made life
beside her too full of colour to be lightly abandoned.

* * * * *

Daphne presently went upstairs to take off her walking-dress, and Mrs.
Phillips, with a rather troubled face, began to tidy the confusion of
letters she had left behind her.

"I dare say the girls won't mind," said Madeleine Verrier, kindly.

Mrs. Phillips started, and her mild lips quivered a little. Daphne's
charities were for Daphne an amusement; for this gentle, faded woman,
who bore all the drudgery of them, they were the chief attraction of
life in Daphne's house. Mrs. Phillips loved the club-girls, and the
thought of their disappointment pained her.

"I must try and put it to them," was her patient reply.

"Daphne must always have her way," Madeleine went on, smiling. "I wonder
what she'll do when she marries."

Mrs. Phillips loo