e better for me to take a name instead of initials
only, I saw no reason to undeceive the world at large, and chose a name
to fit the letters."

"I think it is wonderful," said Philippa, after a slight pause. "I
cannot tell you how interested I am. When I think of the times without
number that my father and I tried to build up a personality for the
writer from the books, and the intense interest we took in him, and now
to find that after all, if he had but known it, it was an old friend of
his who wrote them and not a 'he' at all."

"I am glad he liked my books. I wonder if he thought _The Millstone_
true to life," she said musingly. "I think, somehow, that he would
have understood. Oh yes, it is true to life, my dear. I have been a
plain woman, and I ought to know."

"But how can you say that beauty is everything when you have such a
wonderful gift? It is no small thing to be Ian Verity, and bring
pleasure to thousands."

"That may be so. I grant you that is the case. But it has come too
late to give me the joy of youth. I am not holding it lightly, do not
think so for a moment. It is everything to me now--or nearly
everything--but it did not help me to climb the heights, it only makes
my journey across the plains fuller and brighter. Oh," she cried, with
a sudden ring of feeling in her voice, "if I had a daughter I know what
I should say to her. If she was pretty I would say, 'My dear, make the
very most of your looks and of your time. Don't try to be clever,
because you are probably a fool, but that doesn't matter. Keep your
mouth shut, and look all the brilliant things you haven't the wit to
say.' And if she were ugly I would say, 'For heaven's sake be amusing,
and cultivate the gift of patience, and don't hope for the
impossible.'" Isabella smiled. "Why did no one give me any good
advice when I was young, I wonder? When I think of what I was as a
girl--shy, awkward, and insufferably dull! I was unselfish. Oh yes,
revoltingly unselfish. So pitifully anxious to please that I couldn't
have said Boo to a goose, if I could have found a bigger one than
myself, which is extremely doubtful. In fact, I was thoroughly worthy;
and, my dear, God help the girl to whom her friends apply that
adjective."

She leaned forward, clasping her knees with her hands, and with her
eyes fixed on the distant heathland. She spoke without a trace of
bitterness. "One day, it is very long ago now, but I have not