me that it's
in my own power, and must be manufactured inside, because I've heard it
so often, and it's not true! I need _outside_ things, and I can't be
happy till I get them. But I only want them so that I can be happy, and
I'd give them up in a minute if _other_ things would have the same
effect. Don't I express myself lucidly and well? I'm a sweet,
tender-hearted little girl, dear friends, and I ask for so little! Kind
contributions gratefully received. Mrs Ingram dear, you won't preach,
will you?"

"Not for the world," cried Mrs Ingram laughing. "Why shouldn't you be
happy, Meriel dear? I am sure we all wish you a short quest, and a rich
harvest! And what does Norah want?"

Mrs Ingram's voice was a trifle apologetic as she looked towards where
Norah Boyce sat, turning her head from side to side to listen to the
pronouncements of her fellow guests, sometimes serious, sometimes
smiling, but always with that little wistful pucker of the brows which
of late had become a settled expression. It seemed at the moment as if
it would be more sensible to inquire what Norah did _not_ want, for a
very harvest of last straws had combined to break her back within the
last two years. She was an orphan, but having been possessed of a
moderate, but comfortable income (five hundred a year to wit), had
contrived to lead a sufficiently full and agreeable life during the
half-dozen years which had elapsed since she had left school. She paid
visits, she travelled abroad with congenial friends, she had a room at a
ladies' club, and stayed frequently as paying guest with such of her
friends as were not overburdened with this world's wealth. Everyone was
pleased to entertain a pretty, particularly sweet-tempered girl, and to
receive five pounds a week for the privilege, for there was no meanness
about Norah, she looked upon money simply as a means to an end, spent
lavishly, and was as ignorant as a doll as to the investments from which
her income arose. She knew by reference to her bank-book that a cheque
for about a hundred pounds was due in December, and was convenient for
Christmas gifts, and that another--about fifty--arrived in time for the
July sales. She knew that her receipts varied, but that, of course, was
the result of a Liberal Government, and would come right with its fall
from power! On one occasion a cheque never came at all, and it appeared
that something had gone wrong in America, and that it never would co