terday, we drove out through the suburbs--she seems to want to be
out doors all the time, you know--and under a big tree there was a camp
of those horrid gypsies. The horses were unhitched, and the dirtiest
children playing all about, and they were cooking over a fire. Nothing
would do but we must stop the horses--the new bays, you know, and they
hate anything queer--and mamma actually made quite a visit among them!
They were English gypsies, from Sussex, they said. One of the women
ladled out some mess or other from the great pot and mamma actually ate
it. And it was odd, too, but they wouldn't take any money.

"'Not from you, lady, not from you!' they said. The woman put her
hands behind her back."

"That _was_ odd," said Elliot.

"Yes. And as we drove off she looked after them and said the strangest
things. 'Could any one be happier, do you think?' she said, and
afterward: 'Life seems so unwrinkled, somehow, when one sees it lived
that way!'"

"And what did you say to that?" asked her brother.

"Why, of course, there was nothing to say. I only said that I couldn't
conceive how any educated woman could be happy without a bath-tub."

He chuckled.

"Of course you did," he murmured.

"That's what mamma said," she sighed.

"What?"

"Why, she looked at me so queerly and said, 'Of course you would say
that, Mina!'"

"Do you know what I've come over for?" he asked abruptly.

"On business, I suppose," she answered idly.

"Yes. Uncle John sent for me, to ask if I had any idea of mamma's
intentions. And then there were papers to sign."

"Papers?" she looked alarmed.

"Yes. I think you might as well know. But we're not to discuss it
with her, understand. She's disposing of all her property."

"Why, Elly!"

"It's divided into thirds. One-third to me, one-third to you, and the
other third cut up into servants' legacies, one or two charities and
enough for herself to give her a hundred pounds a year."

"Pounds?"

"It's in English securities. It looks as if she meant to live in
England. Uncle John asked if he might tell us, and she said only on
condition that we didn't discuss it. She meant to travel for some
years, she said, and she had arranged to have us notified immediately
in case of any accident or difficulty. She expected to write
occasionally, too, she said. You know how mamma is--she simply
hypnotised the old gentleman."

"Why, Elly! you don't think her mind..."

"Bosh! Her m