rank from what she had once believed would be
her crowning joy; she decided to leave the matter entirely with Dr.
McPherson.

After all, she concluded, it should be Con's right to bring to her this
last touching proof of his uncle's love and desire. How proud he would
be! How they would laugh over it all when they both knew the secret!

So the subject was not referred to and a day or so later Betty Arnold
entered their lives, and so intense was their interest in her and her
affairs that personal matters were, for the moment, overlooked.

Lynda went first to call upon Betty alone. If she were to be
disappointed, she wanted time to readjust herself before she encountered
other eyes. Betty Arnold, too, was alone in her sister's drawing room
when Lynda was announced. The two girls looked long and searchingly at
each other, then Lynda put her hands out impulsively:

"It's really too good to be true!" was all she could manage as she
looked at the fair, slight girl and cast doubt off forever.

"Isn't it?" echoed Betty. "Whew! but this is the sort of thing that ages
one."

"Would it have mattered, Betty, whether I was pleased or not?"

"Lynda, it would--awfully! You see, all my life I've been independent
until I met Brace and now I want everything that belongs to him. His
love and mine collided but it didn't shock us to blindness, it awakened
us--body and soul. When that happens, everything matters--everything
that belongs to him and me. I knew you liked Mollie, and John is an old
friend; they're all I've got, and so you see if you and I hadn't--liked
each other, it would have been--tragic. Now let's sit down and have tea.
Isn't it great that we won't have to choke over it?"

Betty presided at the small table so daintily and graciously that her
occasional lapses into slang were like the dartings of a particularly
frisky little animal from the beaten track of conventions. She and Lynda
grew confidential in a half hour and felt as if they had known each
other for years at the close of the call. Just as Lynda was reluctantly
leaving, Mrs. Morrell came in. She was darker, more dignified than her
sister, but like her in voice and laugh.

"Mollie, I wish I had told you to stay another hour," Betty exclaimed,
going to her sister and kissing her. "And oh! Mollie, Lynda likes me!
I'll confess to you both now that I have lain awake nights dreading this
ordeal."

When Lynda met Brace that evening she was amused at his drawn fac