ty and even to assist her father and new stepmother. For
Herr Crippen was growing older and had nothing except what he earned by
his music pupils. No, Esther's way was straight before her and one owed
it to a great talent like hers to make the best of it. She had never
manifested for Richard Ashton more than a warm friendliness which was
natural enough to their position. Neither had he ever given Esther any
reason to believe that the old kindness and sympathy which he had once
felt for her had deepened into emotions much stronger. Yet, to him
Esther's plain face, with its pallor and serious sweetness, with its big
mouth and splendidly modeled lips was more beautiful than all his sister
Betty's vivid prettiness.

"Betty!" The thought of her brought him back to the every-day world
again. He laughed good-humoredly.

"Esther, Betty has everlastingly been saying that you had a perfectly
determined passion for sacrificing yourself. Please get it out of your
head at once that I have the faintest idea of taking Mistress Betty home
with me. For if ever you needed her in all your life it seems to me you
will need her in the next few years. And as long as half your effort is
being made for her sake don't you think that she might at least be
allowed to stand shoulder to shoulder with you? The Princess is rather a
nice person, you know, Esther, in spite of us, and I don't believe that
all the pleading in the world that I could do would persuade her to
desert you."

"But it must," Esther replied so solemnly that Richard Ashton stared at
her in fresh astonishment. For now that they were talking of Betty and
not of herself she was looking directly at him.

"You see, it is for just this reason that I wanted to talk to you
alone," Esther went on hurriedly. "Of course I may be mistaken or
perhaps I have not exactly the right to interfere, but I am awfully
afraid, Dick, that Betty is learning to care for that young German
fellow, Carl von Reuter. Oh, I can understand that you may consider it
absurd of me to be so suspicious, because Betty has been having dozens
of admirers ever since we came to Germany. But I am sure this affair is
quite different. In the first place the man himself is so much more
attractive. He is heir to an old title and----"

"But Betty could not be such an utter goose as to care about a title,"
Dick interrupted; "and this fellow is as poor as a church mouse and she
has only known him a few weeks. Don't you think